


Angels Ascendant

by MikeJaffa



Category: Andromeda (TV), Babylon 5, Bakuretsu Tenshi | Burst Angel, Ghost in the Shell (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2020-11-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:34:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 48,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27731626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MikeJaffa/pseuds/MikeJaffa
Summary: POST FINALE:  Sei and Jo learn the truth of Jo’s origins.  Meanwhile, Kyohei has a chance to go to France and become a patissier.
Relationships: Jo/Meg (Bakuretsu Tenshi)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER: Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda is owned by Tribune; Burst Angel is owned by Gonzo. Babylon 5 is owned by Warner Brothers, although they have only one scene at the end. And I don't own the rights to "Ghost in the Shell." (And at the risk of turning someone off, yes, I liked the 2017 movie.) I am not making any money off this fic. This chapter and those that follow include English-language dialogue written by Eric Vale and Andrew Rye, translated from the script written by Fuhmiko Shimo. Used without permission. But I am not making any money off this story, so I would hope that if the writers get wind of this, they are flattered instead of ticked off. PenpaninuSessh gave me permission to refer back to events in her fic, “Genderbend Challenge: Jo’s New Look,” which was written based on a challenge I provided. I’ll add other disclaimers as called for in subsequent chapters. ADDENDUM FOR AO3 READERS: "Genderbend Challenge: Jo's New Look" is in the Burst Angel archive on fan fiction dot net. 
> 
> That's everything, I think. Let's bring it!

SPOILERS FOR THE LAST FOUR EPS OF BURST ANGEL IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THEM ALREADY  
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/

LAST TIME ON BURST ANGEL…

The day an alleged terrorist bombing apparently kills the governor general of Tokyo, The Bailan Triad makes an alliance with Zero, the conspiracy behind the glowing brains, a conspiracy set to bring about the end of the world. Zero’s side of the alliance is led by Rick Glenford, an American who takes control of Tokyo after the bombing. Sei is told the awful truth and her group is decommissioned. As the granddaughter of the triad’s godfather, there is nothing she can do. The next morning she tells Jo, Meg and Amy their services are no longer required, and then leaves a message for Kyohei. He plays the message after he finds the trailer isn’t where he was supposed to meet it.

Jo and Meg spend a blissful week spending their severance pay on shopping and dates, and their feelings for each other begin to blossom. But then Sei returns with one more job: A monster has been terrorizing Tokyo’s subways, a monster that, unbeknownst to Sei, is really the mutated former governor general. RAPT has agreed to herd the monster into a battle with Jo and Django, to kill the monster. This Jo does, but then Maria reappears. It turns out this was a trap by Zero to capture Jo, with Meg taken hostage to ensure Jo’s cooperation. Sei learns Maria and Jo were the products of genetic engineering, meant to create a super soldier who would lead the glowing brains in a war to conquer the world.

But then Maria captures Meg and Jo and spirits them away to an aircraft carrier to reenact the battle she’d had with Jo before Jo met Meg, a battle Maria intends to win, with Meg as the prize. But then she realizes she likes Jo and decides to let Meg and Jo escape. As Meg swims away with Jo, the last she sees of Maria is that she is apparently being killed by RAPT forces.

Sei goes to her grandfather and he tells her to forget her obligations to the triad and do what she feels is right. She gets word to Jo and Amy that she is going to RAPT to confront Glenford and, she hopes, bring about an end to the conspiracy…maybe at the cost of her own life. But when Meg learns Jo wants to support Sei, she resists. She wants to run away with Jo, and leave all the battles behind. Jo knocks Meg out and leaves her coat with Meg.

With Jo piloting Dajngo and Leo and Takane backing her up from the trailer, Jo fights a running battle into RAPT HQ as Sei confronts Glenford and, at gunpoint, forces him to take her into the heart of RAPT. There, she faces a gigantic glowing brain, and learns that Glenford himself is a glowing brain in a cyborg body…

…a body with a built-in machine gun; Sei and Glenford fire on each other at the same time. Sei is mortally wounded as Glenford falls dead. Then Django’s head breaks through the wall and Jo runs out of the Mech.

‘Jo--’ Sei orders, pointing at the giant brain, ‘shoot that thing!’

Jo stands next to Sei and draws her handguns. 

‘You’ve just entered a whole new world!’ she shouts at the gigantic brain. ‘Welcome to hell!’

She fires on the super brain, and it begins to bubble and glow, building up to an explosion that no one will survive …. 

…. AND NOW, THE CONCLUSION….

Jo holstered her guns, and then knelt behind Sei. She tugged the other woman against her, cradling her as they waited for the end.

Sei started to say, “You--” then she coughed up blood. “You should get out of here.”

“No time,” Jo said. “Had a good run, didn’t we?”

Sei knew that was the closest Jo would ever come to admitting to their friendship and forgiving her for breaking up the team. Sei smiled and said weakly, “Yeah, we did.” She felt calm, not afraid at all, but then death had never scared her. She didn’t even worry over whether the gunshot wounds would claim her before she was vaporized. Hardly seemed worth worrying about. Nor was she worried over where her new friends, Dylan, Rhade, and Trance had got to.

All she could think about was Kyohei. At least Elise would help him pursue his dreams… 

/  
/

The Saturday before the Monday when Governor General Ishihara of Tokyo allegedly died in a terrorist bombing was like any other Saturday in the Japanese megalopolis. It was a bright, sunny day, and Tokyo’s residents went about their business throughout the day and into the evening with no idea about what was coming. Certainly, neither Kyohei Tachibana nor his employers knew a chain of events would be set in motion that would have a cataclysmic impact on their lives. Kyohei’s biggest concern as he rode to Sei’s trailer on his motor scooter just after sunset was what Sei could possibly be doing at Tokyo Fortune Island that evening that had warranted her instructing him to “dress nice.” Not knowing what to expect, and guessing things might be somewhat formal, he’d opted to wear the suit Sei had bought for him months ago…

…the suit that, so far, he’d only worn when he’d helped the girls with a couple of their jobs; the time he and Jo had gone under cover as two gay men stuck in his mind. ‘If Jo is dressed like a dude again,’ he’d said to himself as he’d dressed, ‘I’m quitting tonight! For real!’ The memory of the laser dot from the scope on Meg’s sniper rifle dancing on his fly stung, and he had no desire to go through anything like that again.

Even so, as he approached the trailer, he was as much curious as he was worried. His curiosity turned to outright puzzlement when he saw the car belonging to Shiho Kazami, the girl leading his cooking team at the culinary school, parked next to the trailer in the artificial Island’s mainland parking lot.

He’d entered the trailer and noticed Shiho was working in the kitchen when he his train of thought was derailed by Meg’s wolf whistle. “Hubba, hubba-hubba,” she called from where she was sitting with Jo (who, looking on with bored disinterest, was mercifully NOT dressed like a guy) and Amy. 

“Damn, Kyo,” Meg went on, “is it me or do you look better in that suit every time? Be still my beating heart! Jo? What do you think about a foursome if Sei doesn’t tucker him out too much?”

Jo deadpanned, “Doing what?” She had no clue.

“Ugh.” Meg rolled her eyes. 

Kyo said, “What are you talking about? Shiho? What are you doing here?”

“I’m subbing for you, Kyo,” Shiho said, “so Sei can take you out tonight.”

Meg said, “Sei’s a sex on the beach kind of girl, Kyo, not take ‘im in the kit--”

Kyo heard Sei’s voice behind him: “Knock it off, ladies. Ready to go, Kyo?”

Kyo turned to see Sei coming down from the cockpit and his jaw dropped. Sei was wearing a sleeveless knee-length black dress that revealed much less skin than she normally exposed but was somehow more alluring. She wore string of pearls and diamond earrings, light makeup, and she smelled fantastic.

Kyo stammered, “Go where?”

“Dinner, of course,” Sei answered. “Then a movie and dancing. This week will mark one year since you came to work for me, and I’m taking you out to celebrate the occasion. Shiho was kind enough to come in and take over for you.”

Meg folded her arms as she looked at Sei. “And you’re wearing your trademarked Little Black Dress and about a half a gallon of expensive perfume and *we’re* in the wrong for saying anything.”

“Can it,” Sei said. “Shiho? I’m counting on you to keep these two in check.”

“Two?” Shiho frowned.

“Jo won’t be any trouble as long as you don’t threaten Meg,” Sei explained; “it’s Meg and Amy I’m worried about.” 

“Don’t worry, Ma’am. I’ve got this.”

“Good.” She turned to Kyo and softened visibly. “Kyo? Ready?”

“A-all right.”

As they walked from the trailer towards the tram station for the ride across the causeway to the domed artificial island, they heard Meg’s voice behind them: “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”

/  
/

Sei and Kyo raised their wine glasses. She and Kyo were sitting at a table on the outdoor deck of a restaurant that overlooked the beach on the half-domed artificial island. The wine had been served with their meals. “To Kyohei Tachibana,” she said, “Tokyo’s best kept secret and one of my closest friends on the occasion of the first anniversary of his entering my employment. Cheers.”

“A votre sante.”

They clinked glasses and sipped their wine. 

Kyohei blushed a little as they started eating. “This is great, Sei, but you didn’t have to.”

“Yes, I did, Kyo. You and your predecessor are the only two chefs I’ve hired who lasted more than a few days, and Richard left to return to England and marry his boyfriend. You have a lot of guts, the girls like you -- don’t give me that look; they do -- and you’re a damned good cook.” A little sadness entered her voice. “And you’ve had a rough time since your friend Akio died. I thought you could use a little pick-me-up.” She smiled. “And when a girl buys a young man dinner, he shouldn’t complain about it. I’m just saying.”

“Well…ok, Sei. Thanks.”

After dinner they saw a movie in the multiplex. Kyo chose an action-adventure movie. He loved it, although he would hard pressed to admit he loved sitting next to Sei, too. Then they went to the dance club. They hadn’t been on the floor long when Sei saw that Kyo was exhausted. When the song changed, she said, “C’mon -- let’s take a break.”

They found an empty table and Kyo sagged into a chair across from her. “You tired me out again.”

“I do seem to have that effect on my men,” she teased.

“Huh?”

“Have you had a good time?”

He brightened. “Oh, yes, Sei! This was awesome. You -- you know I don’t know if I should tell you this--”

“It’s all right, Kyo. You should know by now you can tell me anything.”

“Well… at the start, I thought I hated my job. And still, there are days when I don’t know why I bother. But I like working for you, and…sometimes you do things that just make my day, like this. You scare me and you can be the best all at once.”

She smiled. “I think that just means I’m a typical woman.”

“I don’t think there’s anything ‘typical’ about you. But what I mean is…uh…”

“It’s all right, Kyo. I know what you mean. Thank you. For myself…right when I first met you, I knew that were a lot of things about you I liked. I thought I’d enjoy having you around. And I was right. I wasn’t kidding when I said you’re also one of my closest friends. I’m glad I met you.”

Kyo blushed. “Thanks--”

“Excuse me,” a strange woman’s voice said, “but aren’t you Kyohei Tachibana?”

Sei and Kyo turned to face the woman standing by their table. She was a European or American woman about Meg’s height, with long, blonde hair. She wore a purple dress with gold trim.

Kyo said, “Who wants to know?”

“I thought so. We have a mutual friend -- Shiho Kazami. She does my nails.”

“Oh, yeah,” Kyo said, “you must be T. G.” He turned to Sei. “Shiho told me about her -- she’s a customer at the nail salon who only wears purple and gold and pays with cash for everything. T. G., this is my employer, Sei.”

“Pleasure,” T. G. said as she shook Sei’s hand. “I’m sorry -- I didn’t mean to interrupt. But I’ve heard the legend of your brave cook, and I wanted to meet him for myself.”

Kyo blushed. “Legend? Come on!”

Sei smiled. “See? You’re finally getting some well-deserved recognition.” To T. G.: “Kyohei has worked for me for almost a year. I’m taking him out tonight to commemorate that anniversary.”

“You are a very generous employer,” T. G. said. “Kyo does not realize how lucky he is to have met you. Well, I won’t keep you any longer. Nice meeting you, Kyo. Keep charting your own course; don’t be afraid to use the routes others abandon.” She turned and vanished into the crowd.

“Great,” Sei muttered. “There’s a new player in Tokyo.”

“How can you tell?” Kyo asked quietly.

“Because five’ll get you ten that while she knows Shiho, Shiho never shared a picture of you. That was her way of trying to gain my notice and show she has one up on me. Fine. I’ve noticed. Other than that, the way to handle that kind of situation is to be unimpressed. Someone that arrogant is bound to make a mistake.”

“Like when the Chinese mob princess you quit working for the day before calls you from across the street and tells you to look out the window?”

Surprise jolted through Sei’s body. “I’m sorry, Kyo! I didn’t think of that at the time. You… you don’t hold that against me, do you?” She sounded upset.

“Well, a little at first, but…part of me wanted to come back.” He smiled -- he’d never seen Sei upset, and he wanted to make it better. “Besides, I was blaming myself for Meg being captured. Now I know better.”

Sei smiled. “I know. That girl could get kidnapped in an empty field 1000 miles from the nearest human being.”

Kyo laughed. “She could get taken hostage at a hostage negotiators’ convention.”

They howled.

Sei held her smile as she calmed down. “Well, I’m glad that’s water under the bridge.” The music changed to a slow rock ballad. She stood and extended her hand. “Come on. Slow dance and then we call it a night.”

He took her hand. “Ok.”

On the dance floor, he settled into Sei’s arms and enjoyed the feeling of her body against his. She looked great, smelled great…felt great.

He muttered, “I could get used to this.”

“So could I,” Sei said quietly.

“Uh--”

“It’s all right, Kyo. Would you like to go out with me again sometime?”

“Yes.”

“All right then; we’ll see what comes up down the road.”

/  
/

When they got back to the trailer, they weren’t surprised that Shiho was alive and watching a movie on the flat screen with Jo, Meg, and Amy. But that the trailer was spotlessly clean was a shock.

“Who did this?” Sei asked. 

Shiho said, “They did. That was the deal -- they clean up and they have movie night.”

Kyo stammered, “But…how…Shiho…they’re trained killers!”

“And I would lose a shootout with them, no question,” Shiho said. “But in the kitchen, I am the alpha dog. That’s why I lead our team at school. Once I understood their dynamic, it was simple.”

“Oh, yeah,” Meg said. “Kyo, that girl must like you, because she’s a tough cookie. She’s taking it easy on you.”

“Shiho,” Sei teased. “I may not need another chef, but would you like to come aboard as some sort of house mother?”

Shiho stood. “Well, if I do that, Ma’am, we’re going to have to start by riding rough-shod over Kyo.”

“Me!?” Kyo yelped.

“You,” Shiho said. “Did you think I wouldn’t figure out how you spoil them?” She addressed the girls: “He makes you all sound like nightmares, so we won’t guess he has you eating out of his hand…even you, Sei.” Back to Kyo: “Your fun’s over if I come onboard, buddy boy.”

“What…” Kyo stammered. “…I…”

Meg said, “Yeah, we tried to keep the secret, but she got it out of us.”

Kyo sagged. “Ugh. I’ll see you on Monday, Shiho. Sei…”

Sei and Kyo hugged. Sei said, “Get a good night’s sleep, and I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

“All right.”

After he left, Sei heard Meg behind her: “You know, you could always go and kiss him good night.”

“Yes,” Shiho said, “I think his bed has enough room.”

“I’m rethinking that house mother position,” Sei grumbled.

/  
/

Kyo didn’t get home until 11:30, and he saw a light on in his house. ‘Oh, boy,’ he thought. ‘Time for lecture “Why Being A Pastry Chef And/Or Working For Sei Is A Bad Idea.” #327.’

Dad was sitting in the living room, facing the door.

Kyo tried to go upstairs without talking. “Sorry I’m late, dad--”

“Come here for a moment, son.”

Kyo sighed, went back down the stairs, and took the chair opposite Dad.

Dad said, “I’d like to ask you something: Suppose your employers were men. Would you have stayed as long?”

“Well, I suppose I’m glad you no longer think I’m gay. But yes, I would. They’re helping me save money to pay the taxes for when I go to France.”

Dad nodded. “And how much money have you saved?”

“About half of what I need.” 

“So, if that keeps up, the end of next year, you should have enough money to go?”

“I guess.”

“So you should be starting to make preparations. You already have a passport, have to find someone to study under, get a visa for a long stay--”

“I’ve written to a couple of -- Wait, Dad, is this your latest trick to talk me out of it? Or to yell at me for spending too much time with Sei?”

“I am worried about you spending too much time with a mobster, Kyo, and that’s exactly what she is: the granddaughter of the godfather of a Chinese crime family. If she goes down, either from a mob war or from being arrested, you go, too. But that’s not the issue. I remember before you started working for her, all you talked about was being a patissier. But lately, not so much. And I’ve begun to wonder if you’ve got … comfortable.”

“Sei isn’t banging me.”

“I didn’t say she was. But you spend a lot of time with them. In fact, the only times you‘ve had dinner at home in the past year is when they‘ve been out of town. And even then, it was that one night before you went to Osaka.”

“Dad, what’s your point?”

“You had a lot of drive and determination, Son. I don’t agree with your life choices, but I respected you for pursuing your dream no matter what. But it’s been a while since you’ve been that driven, and anyone who knows your situation is going to wonder why. So if you’re still set on studying in France, why aren’t you more serious about starting to make the preparations you know you have to make? And if you don’t want to go, then why are you still working for Sei?”

/  
/

Meg came up the steps onto the roof of the trailer. It was Sunday evening, and Kyo had come to make dinner for the girls and eat with them. But they had seen something was wrong with Kyo when he’d gone up to the roof while their meals cooked. It was a clear, cool, Moonless night; the Sun had just gone down, the stars beginning to appear above the lights of the highway to their west. Kyo was leaning on the railing, looking out over the traffic.

Meg came up beside him and said, “Looks like everything will be ready in five minutes.”

Kyo nodded. 

“Kyo? You ok, buddy?”

“What am I doing here, Meg?”

“Inhaling smog.”

“Meg.”

“All right; I know that look. What‘s eating you?”

“Last night I talked to my dad. He asked me how much money I‘ve saved to pay the taxes for studying abroad. I told him I have about half of it.”

Meg smiled. “That’s great!” 

Kyo didn’t smile and nodded.

“So what’s wrong?” Meg asked.

“If I want to start studying in France in a year,” Kyo said, “I have to start working on it now -- making contacts, sending applications, finding a place to stay -- all of it. I know that. But other than contacting a few kitchens, I’m dragging my feet. And I’m not disappointed I haven’t got any responses yet. It’s like I’m stuck.”

“Stuck?”

“I just…I don’t know…My dad was right. I was so determined a year ago, but now that it’s getting closer, I’m hesitating. I spend all my free time here, and I’m more worried about what I’ll make you -- make *us* --- for dinner than getting ready to study abroad. But if I’m not just making money to go to France, what am I doing here? And don’t say ‘You’re in love with Sei.’” 

Meg smiled. “You’re *madly* in love with Sei.” She turned serious. “Ok, but she’s your friend, isn’t she? And so am I. And so are Jo and Amy. And you’re a lot more relaxed than you were at the start. Looks to me like you’ve settled in here and like us. Nothin’ wrong with that; you have good taste in women.”

Kyo chuckled. “If you like ‘em crazy.”

“That’s the best kind; didn’t you know that? And as for us … well, me, when we met, I didn’t think you’d last two weeks. And here you are, still chugging along after a year, and that includes a bunch of times when you’ve risked your neck for us. I respect you a lot, and I like you. We all do; even Jo warmed up to you, which is no mean feat.” She squeezed his shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, Kyo. You’ll go when you’re ready. And you’ll do us proud.”

“Ok. Thanks, Meg.”

Kyo ate with the girls, and as expected, was teased about his “big date” with Sei on Saturday. But it didn’t bother him as much as it had in the past. And when he went to bed that night, he admitted to himself that as much as the girls annoyed him, there were worse things to do than spend an evening with them.

It’s good that he admitted it then.

The next morning, the news reported that Governor General Ishihara had died in an explosion in the heart of Tokyo. Everything went to hell after that.

/  
/

Hayao Ichimonji, the lanky boy who was the third member of the three-person team including Shiho and Kyohei, pulled his SUV into a parking spot in Love and Happy Culinary Design School’s parking garage two spaces over from where Kyohei had parked his scooter. He called to Kyo as he got out of his truck: “Hey, Bro’! You hear the news?”

“Yeah,” Kyohei said. “Ishihara and--”

“Did you hear?” Shiho said, coming down the ramp from an upper level.

Kyo said, “Yeah, we were just talking about it. Just when you think you’ve seen everything…” He trailed off and shook his head.

Shiho smiled. “Well, at least you had a good time Saturday.” She turned to Hayao. “Sei took him to dinner and a movie on Tokyo Fortune Island Saturday. And you should have seen the way she hugged him when he went home.” 

Kyohei groaned. “It was just a hug. No big deal.”

Hayao gawked. “A hug? From the sports car super babe? No big deal? DUUUUUDE! You must be nuts. Chick like that likes you, you have a ticket to easy street.”

“What the …” Kyo stammered. “You‘re blowing this out of proportion. It was our anniversary…”

The other teens raised their eyebrows.

“That came out wrong,” Kyohei stammered. “It was my…It’s been a year since I went to cook for her. That was all.”

“Hmmm,” Shiho said, “all employers should be so generous. She wore her little black dress, Hayao; and she‘d bought the suit Kyo wore. She has designs on him -- you can bet your last yen on it. As a woman, I know it.”

“Give me a break,” Kyo protested. “It’s debatable whether she even knows or cares what people think of what she does. And I don’t even like her sometimes. She can be a huge pain in the ass.”

A strange voice said, “Who is a pain in whose ass?” The feminine voice had a French accent. 

Kyo turned to the speaker. The girl coming towards them was obviously European, about Shiho’s height and age; with black hair; brown eyes; and her generous lips were a soft, intoxicating red. Next to her was a balding, middle age man with white stubble on his face. 

“It’s nothing,” Kyo said, hypnotized. “My boss took me out Saturday night and they’re teasing me about it.”

“Ah,” the girl said, “that would that be Sei?”

“Huh?” Kyo asked. “How do you know?”

“Forgive me,” the girl said. “I am Elise Navarre. This is my father, Jean-Pierre. You are Kyohei Tachibana? You contacted us about becoming a patissier?”

“What--” Kyo grinned. “Yes, I -- Hayao, Shiho, these are the people from the restaurant I told you about. Mr. Navarre is the Chef de Cuisine, and if I remember correctly, Elise is one of the patissiers.”

Mr. Navarre nodded. “We are both patissiers, Kyohei, but I worked up through the ranks to run the kitchen. We are also partners with the restaurant’s owner. But I taught Elise everything I know. We were both pleased and surprised that someone from so far away was actually seeking us out; most boys your age do not even consider this as their calling. It is our pleasure to meet you, Kyohei.”

Kyohei blushed. “Thank you, although I don’t know if I deserve that. These are my friends, Shiho Kazami and Hayao Ichimnoji.”

Jean-Pierre said, “It is a pleasure to meet you all. When you contacted us, Kyo, Elise and I were already planning to come over here for a month, and Mina Hongo is an old friend from when I studied in Japan. We decided to surprise you, yes? Mix business with pleasure-- see what you are made of, eh? But first, we must find the school and talk with Mina. We looked for the elevator, but we haven’t found it.”

“Ah,” Kyo said, “yeah, this garage can be a little confusing the first few times. Follow me.”

/  
/

After directing Jean-Pierre and Elise to the office level, Kyo, Hayao, and Shiho changed for class. They had taken their seats in the huge class room/kitchen when Miss Hongo came in followed by Jean-Pierre and Elise, and Elise had changed into a chef’s whites. Hongo motioned to Shiho and her group; Kyo, Hayao and Shiho went to the head of the room.

Miss Hongo said, “Kyo, because Elise is a patissier herself, I‘m putting her in your group. And I want you to assist her in an exercise she‘s going to lead. It‘s as much an audition for Jean-Pierre as anything.”

“Really!?” Kyo yelped.

Sitting to the side, Jean-Pierre nodded. “Oui. If I like what I see, you can come back to Paris with us and study in my kitchen.”

“That’s--” Kyo stammered. “--that’s great sir--but -- the taxes for studying abroad--I haven’t saved enough yet--”

“How much have you saved?” Jean-Pierre asked.

“About half.”

Jean-Pierre waved it off. “Then I will pay the balance of the taxes and your travel expenses. And you will live with us. Although you have to promise to stay out of my daughter’s bed, eh? At least at first.”

Elise blushed. “Papa!”

Jean-Pierre chuckled, then turned serious: “But, mon ami, it depends on how well you can learn, yes? How well you follow Elise’s direction. This I must see for myself. Do not be fooled by her being a patissier; she is second only to me in the kitchen, and those who disobey her have no place in my house. Can you keep up with her?”

Kyo turned to Elise and those hypnotic brown eyes. He smiled and thought, ‘Compared to a cybot, this is nothing.’ He said: “I can take whatever she can dish out.”

Miss Hongo nodded. “All right. Hayao, Shiho, take your seats. Kyo, stay at the head of the class with Elise.” 

Hongo called the class to order. When everyone had settled down, she said, “Class, in light of this morning’s events, the headmaster has decided we will let out after half a day. So we will not have our normal exercises. But instead we will have a treat.” She pointed to Jean-Pierre. “Jean-Pierre Navarre, here, is an old friend visiting from Paris. He worked his way from being a patissier to the Chef de Cuisine of a 5-star restaurant. His daughter, Elise, who is also a patissier, will be auditing our classes for the next few weeks. Today, she will show us how to make some simple pastries, and Kyohei will assist her…”

/  
/

Kyohei made a point of making enough samples to take to Sei and the girls, and Jean-Pierre allowed Elise to go with him. “A girl should know all her boyfriend’s friends, no?”

“Papa, you are awful.”

Elise rode on the back of Kyo’s scooter. She helped with the shopping to make sure they had enough groceries for dinner. 

“How many are we cooking for?” Elise asked.

“Six --” Kyo answered, “the girls plus you and me. Sei always has me eat with them.” 

“And they like hot sauce?”

“Oh, that’s Jo. I always bring extra, though she’s got an emergency supply in her gun safe.”

“Her what?”

“Welcome to Tokyo.”

Elise was awed by the trailer and greeted warmly once Kyo introduced her. Jo summed it up: “Any friend of Kyohei’s is a friend of mine.” Kyo insisted that the pastries wait until after dinner, and Sei reinforced the order.

Sei and the girls looked on as Kyo and Elise worked together in the kitchen like a well-oiled machine. (Meg noticed the tiniest bit of unease in Sei’s manner.) The French girl was almost embarrassed to be eating with the people she was cooking for, Kyohei sitting between her and Sei.

“Papa was, uh, impressed with him,” Elise said. “He told me while I was waiting for him -- I am sorry, Kyo, he wanted it to be a surprise, but your friends must know -- he told me that if you agree to go, he will begin making the arrangements. You still have to get a long stay visa, but he will pay for everything else. Kyo can leave with us when we go home.”

“Wow!” Amy said. “That’s great, Kyo!” 

Jo extended one arm and made a fist. “Good on ya buddy.” Kyo fist bumped her. Then Jo looked at Sei with a slight frown. “Sei. Aren’t you happy for Kyo?”

Sei forced a smile. “Of course,” she said, giving Kyo a hug. “Congratulations.”

“Well, it’s not a done deal yet,” Kyo said. He turned to Elise. “I have to think about this.”

“Of curse,” she said, “but do not take too long. He who hesitates is lost.” 

After dinner, Kyo and Elise served the pastries, one for each of them. Meg bit into hers and her eyes rolled back into her head. “Mmmmmmm…” She swallowed. “Who made THAT one?” 

Kyo said, “I did.”

“Whaddya call it, chocolate covered orgasm?” She moaned down another bite. “And this was your first try? Fuhgeddaboudit! We’re all moving to Paris!”

/  
/

Sei sat at her console in the trailer’s cockpit, digesting the e-mail she’d just read. An emergency meeting of the Bailan Triad’s temporary governing committee to commence as soon as she arrived, as in immediately. But it barely registered. Her mind was reeling from the double-whammy that Kyo had a new…girlfriend, and that he could be leaving them for France in a month -- something that had not been expected for years. It was happening too fast … too fast … 

“Sei?” Kyo’s voice sounded behind her.

Sei turned. “Yes?”

Kyo was standing there, Elise at his elbow. He said, “I just wanted to say, thanks for everything. I wouldn’t have had this chance if not for you. I know thing haven’t always gone smoothly, but--”

Meg’s voice sounded from the living quarters: “Come back here you, little brat!”

Amy’s voice: “Let’s see, what’s Meg’s password, and does she have any nude pictures of--”

“Why you--”

Giggling with Meg‘s cell phone in her hand, Amy raced up into the cockpit, easily darting around Elise and Kyo. Meg came barreling behind, a head of steam and not watching where she was going. Kyo knew to get out of the way, but Elise didn’t. Meg knocked Elise aside, and the French girl lost her footing and stumbled halfway down the steps.

Meg turned. “I’m sorry--”

Kyo was at Elise’s side. “Are you all right?”

“It’s all right,” Elise said, “I think--”

“YOU IDIOTS!” Kyo shouted. “Do you have to ruin everything in my life? I can’t wait to--” He broke off. “I’m sorry. That came out wrong.”

Sei came down the steps. “It’s all right. It’s been a busy day, and not over yet. Amy! Give Meg her cell phone back now.”

Amy sagged. “All right.” She handed the phone back to Meg.

“Good,” Sei said. “I really don’t have time for that kind of foolishness. Count yourselves lucky that Elise wasn’t seriously hurt.” She turned to Kyo and Elise. “I have to get to some kind of emergency meeting right now. So I guess you guys can go home.” She shook hands with Elise. “Elise. It was very nice to meet you. It’s good to know that when Kyo leaves our little family, he’ll be in good hands.”

“Merci, Mademoiselle Sei.”

Sei hugged Kyo. “Kyo. Congratulations. I am very proud of you today.”

“Thanks, Sei. And I’m sorry I yelled just now.”

“Water under the bridge, my friend.”

Goodbyes were exchanged with other girls. Sei retreated into the cockpit as the others watched from the door as Kyo and Elise rode away on his scooter.

And then they heard the sound of weeping from the cockpit.

Amy and Jo followed Meg up the steps. Sei was seated at her console, head resting on her arms as she sobbed.

Meg crouched down next to her boss. “Oh. My. God. I was kidding around; I didn’t think…Does he know?”

“Know what?” Sei sniffled.

“You love him--”

“Such an imagination, Meg. You should write anime.”

“Sei, if you don’t say anything, if you don’t fight for what you have, leetle mees Pair-ee will take him away from you--”

“And that’s what he wants, Meg.” Sei wiped her tears as she stood up. “He wants to go to Paris and become a patissier. He wants a girl who’s … who’s not like us. If he can have those things now, how can I stand in his way? Can you?”

“No. But it’s not fair.”

“Only if there was something for him here, and there isn’t. I’m just…surprised at things changing. But change is a part of life, and I’ll adjust. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go now. Don’t wait up.”

/  
/

“What exactly are you getting at here?” Sei said. She and the men who were governing the Bailan Triad while her grandfather convalesced were sitting around a table in the back room of a Chinese restaurant that served as a Bailan front.

“I think I’ve made myself perfectly clear young lady,” the operations chief said. “Your services are no longer required.”

“I’m sorry,” Sei said. “I must be confused about the nature of our mission. We were instructed that collecting intel on the glowing brains and obtaining one was a top priority.”

“That was correct. At the time, there was a strong possibility another syndicate would take advantage of the glowing brains and use them to oppose us. Your mission was based on that. However, the situation has changed.”

The men stood up. Sei heard footsteps behind her and Rick Glenford’s voice: “I must say I am impressed with the way you ladies have handled things. You put up quite a fight there.”

Sei stoop up, looked at Glenford, and spoke to the operations chief: “Oh, no. You didn’t!”

“Afraid so,” the ops chief said. “We have merged with a competing syndicate. Bailan’s future is now quite comfortably secured.”

Glenford said, “We are now known as Zero. The beginning and the end of this world now rest within our hands.”

Sei said, “Tell me, was this Laoban’s decision?” And she thought, ‘Grandfather, don’t tell me you’ve done this!’

“This was my decision,” the ops chief said, “as co-director of operations for Bailan. It was necessary to ensure the organization’s survival. There is no point in arguing, Sei; it is done. Now, there is the matter of the people who work for you. How much do they know?”

“Only what I tell them,” Sei said.

“And Kyohei Tachibana,” the ops chief said. “You’ve been known to spend a lot of time with him; you’ve replaced his property, given him rides in your car, and bought other gifts -- a tailor made suit for one. You were seen having dinner with him at Tokyo Fortune Island this weekend. There have been questions about the nature of your relationship with him. There is also word that you have used him as an operative in at least one operation. I think you can see why this would concern us.”

Sei realized the implication: If the Triad believed Kyohei knew too much, they would either kill him or keep him from leaving the organization. Either way, the life he had known would be over, and if he lived, his hopes of being a pastry chef would be dashed forever. 

Sei saw only one way to save him.

“He is a good cook,” she said. “I took him out in recognition of his service to me after a year. I have replaced property inadvertently destroyed by my field team. The suit was another token of my esteem, but you shouldn‘t read more than that into it. As for using him as an operative, he was able to fill a needed roll, and it was in situations where the risk to him was minimal; and as I previously stated, he only knows what I tell him. As to our personal relationship, I consider him a friend of mine--” she chose the phrase ‘friend of mine’ to reinforce his outsider status. “-- but no more than that.”

“No romantic entanglements?”

“Of course not. He‘s barely a boy.”

“And you have no problem making a clean break with him? To never see him again?”

“No, no problem with that.”

The ops chief looked at Glenford. “Then, with your permission…?”

Glenford nodded.

The ops chief said, “I see no reason to make this more difficult than it already is, and today has seen enough bloodshed. Jo, Meg, Amy, and Kyohei will be allowed to live as long as you divest yourself of all ties with them and have no further contact with them ever. You have 24 hours to shut down operations and send them on their way.”

/  
/

“I have to cancel all your contracts, so I’ll pay you out for the rest of the year plus penalty fees,” Sei said. “In exchange, all ties with the Bailan organization will be severed, effective immediately.” It was morning in the trailer, and Jo, Meg, and Amy were sitting around the dinner table as Sei stood to one side, no longer one of them. Sei had been unable to sleep and had driven around Tokyo all night, remembering how she had recruited the girls. There was no getting around that this would hurt. But the thought of firing Kyo…firing Kyo… 

Meg jumped to her feet. “What!?” she yelped. “I don’t understand.”

Jo turned to Sei. “Let me get this straight. You’re breaking up the team?”

“No,” Meg said, “this is a joke.”

“Sorry,” Sei said. “I need you all to start gathering up your things.”

Meg turned to Amy. “Amy, aren’t you mad? You heard Sei. It’s over!”

Amy seemed nonplussed as she folded her laptop into her teddy bear. “No big deal. The way I see it, Sei’s the one who put the team together. So if she says it’s over, then, well, that’s it. But y’know, it sure was fun while it lasted, so I suppose I will be sorry to see it end.”

Amy’s words twisted the knives in Sei’s stomach. Sei said, “Amy, don’t think that--”

“Sei,” Jo said. “I’m confused. Does this mean you just don’t need us anymore?”

“That’s not it,” Sei said. “I know I’ve asked some pretty impossible things of you girls in the past, but I can’t now. Things have changed.”

Jo looked away. “I see.”

“I-I can’t believe this!” Meg exclaimed. “What about Kyohei?”

“His employment is terminated, too, Meg--” Sei started.

“That’s not my question, Sei. Is this payback for him leaving you?”

“What?” Sei stammered. “No--it had nothing to do with it. I can’t give you the details, Meg, but this wasn’t personal against any of you or him. It wasn’t my decision.”

“No,” Meg said, “it never is your fault, is it, Sei?”

/  
/

Sei sat at the dining room table in the trailer. Meg, Jo, and Amy had cleared out in record time. Their rooms were now bare metal boxes, bereft of any personal touches. All that was left was her room, and Sei hoped to take care of that before Leo locked down the trailer and Django forever. Would she lose that friendship, too? She had known Leo since she was 12. Their relationship had been tumultuous, and as she’d grown to womanhood, there had been periods of passionate intimacy usually followed by recognition of why it wouldn’t work. But in spite of all that, would he side with the girls and tell her to go to hell?

But before she faced Leo, there one more thing to take care of, one thing that hurt so much, and she knew the consequences of doing it with a recording, but she had no choice. For Bailan Triad to forget Kyohei and for him to have the life he wanted, it was the only way. 

“Ok, Sei,” she said to herself, “get it over with.” She picked up her phone and activated its user-facing camera. She smiled and hit “record.”

“Hello, Kyohei,” she said. “First off, thanks for everything.” She dug the nails of her free hand into her palm. Focusing on the pain was the only thing that kept her from breaking down and crying. She went on: “I’m sorry to spring this on you so suddenly, but as of today, your services will no longer be required. It’s not much consolation, I know, but I’ve wired the rest of your pay along with a little extra into your account. I hope you will continue to devote yourself to your studies. You’ll make a great patissier someday.”

She hit “stop,” and played back the message once. What to add? It sounded so inadequate, and she knew he would be heartbroken… and maybe angry at the impersonal way he had been discharged. Hopefully that anger would help him forget: ‘Sei? That bitch couldn’t even fire me to my face. If I never see her again it’ll be too soon.’ As long as that anger didn’t claim his dream of going to France and becoming a pastry chef, she could live with it. Or it wouldn’t kill her, anyway.

She hit ‘send’ and waited the eternal seconds for the confirmation.

She put the phone on the table and wandered into the kitchen area. The tears started coming, and she couldn’t hold them back. She didn’t want to. She didn’t care if anyone heard her as she wailed out her anguish. She slid down against the cabinet wall, sobbing. After what seemed like an eternity, she stopped moaning and just rested her head on her knees, softly weeping.

“Are you sure that’s where you want to leave it with him?” Leo Jin said quietly as he came around the counter into the kitchen.

“Leo…” Sei sniffled as she stood up. “I’m sorry. I didn’t hear you. I’ll…uh, I’ll get my things…”

“No, it’s ok. I can pack them up and send them wherever.”

“The Bailan townhouse near the Ginza.” She stepped closer. “Leo…” The fell into a hug. “I’m sorry…” She whispered. “They shut me down…I had no choice…”

“I know. I know. I just…thanks for explaining, but I really don’t want to talk to you for a while.”

“I understand.” Sei sniffled a little and disengaged. “I’d better go…”

“One thing, Sei. You didn’t answer my question: Is that how you want to leave things with Kyohei?”

“What do you mean?”

“Sei--”

“Not that nonsense again. No, Leo, Kyo was a very dear friend, but if I want the Triad to leave him alone, I have no choice. You know that as well as I.”

“Well, I’m sorry -- for you and for him.”

“Thank you.” More tears convulsed out of her and as she wiped them away, she added: “Goodbye, Leo. Thanks for…I hope we get to work together again someday.”

“Yeah, that would be good. See you around, Sei.”

/  
/

Sei is in the trailer’s kitchen. Kyo turns around. ‘Hey, Sei!’ He holds a soup spoon. ‘Taste.’

She brings her lips to the spoon…

… and woke up. When she realized she was in the bedroom of the Bailan townhouse she was being allowed to stay in until she found a new apartment, she squeezed her eyes shut and started crying. “One taste, just one taste…”

/  
/

Sei did not sleep well for the rest of the night. Her things were delivered that morning, dropped off in cardboard boxes by a messenger service. Sei couldn’t blame Leo for not seeing her. She fished out her toiletries and some clean clothes and left the boxes scattered around the living room and the hall.

She bought some marijuana from a dealer she hadn’t seen in a couple of years and spent the next two nights alone in the townhouse, getting high in the bath; by day she looked for a new apartment, although she didn’t settle on anything. On the third night, as Sei drank wine and lost count of the number of hits of weed she was taking, she resolved her misery would end. She would go back to Chinese restaurant, confront the operations chief, put two bullets in him, and then keep shooting until his bodyguards or the cops brought her down. She didn’t care if she died. She took one more hit, got out of the bath, dressed, and drove off to face her end.

She parked near the restaurant but as she walked under the gate of China Town, a Canadian woman with long, blonde hair in a purple jacket, purple skirt, and gold shirt got in her way. Sei recognized T. G. from her night out with Kyohei. 

“Excuse me,” Sei said. She tried to go around her, but T. G. blocked her path.

T. G. said, “I can’t let you do this.”

“What--” Sei slurred/stammered. “Who the hell do you think you are?”

“I think I’m the one who’s not going to let you kill yourself. You’re not done yet.”

“I’m going to ask you nicely one more time to get out of my way.” 

“No.”

Sei reached for T. G. with one hand, cocking the other fist.

That was the last thing she remembered.

/  
/

Sei opened her eyes with a splitting headache. She realized she was on the couch in her town house’s living room. Her clothes were dirty. A 150 kilo slab of beef in a suit sat across from her. He called out: “She’s awake.”

“Good,” replied the operations chief’s voice. “Sei? Will you join me in the kitchen?”

Sei gingerly got up and walked into the kitchen. The operations chief had put on an apron and was working at the stove. He said, “Have a seat. How do you feel?”

Sei sat at the kitchen table. “Like crap.”

“That’s about right.”

“How did my clothes get dirty?”

“You don’t remember? I’m not surprised. They were soiled when you fell down.”

“Fell down?”

“When you passed out in the alley behind the restaurant. I gather you were there to kill me?”

Sei heard one of Meg’s expressions in her head: ‘Awkwaaaarrdddddd.’ Sei said, “Yes, but I never made it to the alley. I was on the street and…Who’s T. G.?”

“I don’t know. No one knows, and I‘ve been working with my counterparts in Japan and around the globe. Other than the limited color palette of her clothes, the only things anyone knows about her is that she wins at anything she gambles at -- anything, no matter what, and no one knows how she does it -- and that her means of global transportation are a mystery. Why?”

“She confronted me on the street. That’s the last thing I remember.”

“You’re saying she knocked you out then put you in the alley for us to find.”

“Yes. It must be on your security cameras.”

“They broke down tonight. Lucky for her. But as long as she doesn’t oppose us, we can’t begrudge you gaining a new friend.” He put a tray in front of Sei -- rice, dumplings, and a mug of tea. “Not up to Kyohei’s standard, perhaps, but good enough. But as I was saying, I won’t object if this T. G. befriends you, especially as she already saved your life. It might be good for you. We’ve been worried about you, even Glenford-san.”

Sei started eating. “You’re worried. Great. With enemies like you, I don’t need any friends.”

The ops chief sighed, then sat in the chair across from Sei’s. “Sei. You put me in the unenviable position of a man telling a little girl Santa Claus does not exist. You do not have enemies, Sei, because no one takes you seriously. No one never did.”

“But…” Sei stammered as she swallowed some rice. “What about my team? My mission?”

“Ah, yes. There was concern about the glowing brains, yes, but we were making inroads through other channels. Your mission was actually seen as having no chance of success, and that you recruited teenage girls was cause for some amusement. The ridicule ended when you got results, but we didn’t really care if you succeeded; your grandfather permitted it as a way to keep you occupied while he finalized negotiating your marriage to Jei Koruken. If he hadn’t been such a little prick and you had been married as planned, your team would have been disbanded while you were on your honeymoon. As it is, you got a few more months to play Monsters vs. Robots.”

“No--you’re lying--Laoban--”

“Ask him yourself, if you’re not afraid to face the truth. But no one ever saw you as anything more than a spoiled brat your grandfather indulged. And now you have access to the wealth of Bailan with no obligations. If I were your age, I would get myself on the party circuit and rub elbows with movie stars. Or you can lock yourself in an apartment and stay stoned for the rest of your life. Or both. Either way, don’t think you were anything more than eye candy for the triad, Sei, because you weren’t, and you never will be. Accept it and enjoy the rest of your life and let the grownups in the room handle everything else.”

/  
/

After the ops chief left, Sei took a shower. Then while she was still wrapped in a towel, she fished some pictures out of one of the boxes. All were pictures of Kyo with the girls, candidly taken when no one thought she was doing it, and he was always in the foreground near the center of each picture.

She sat on the sofa and wept.

/  
/

Meg sat down next Jo on the boardwalk bench at Odaiba, the artificial island in Tokyo harbor. The island’s attractions and the bridge to Tokyo lit the night sky.

Meg said, “Another thrilling day in the bag. What’s it been, six days now?”

“No,” Jo said, “seven.”

“Huh?”

“It’s been seven days.”

“Has it really…?”

/  
/

“Hey, gotta run,” Hayao Ichimonji said as he got up from the bench in the third floor lobby of the culinary school. “See you tomorrow.”

Kyhohei straightened up as Hayao ran for the elevator. “Yeah,” he said. “Oh, yeah.” 

The elevator doors closed, and Kyohei was left alone, but he didn’t care. He hadn’t really paid attention to what Hayao had been talking about … something about a subway monster and RAPT… it hadn‘t made an impression. He supposed he could go home early. Or look for another job. But he didn’t feel like moving. He looked over his shoulder and out the window again. But Sei’s sports car refused to appear across the street. His mind was still reeling from how quickly things had changed. Eleven days earlier, Sei had treated him to one of the best nights out he’d ever had with the promise of more. Less than 72 hour later he’d been fired with a recording; he hadn‘t heard anything since. He should have been angry, but instead, he was puzzled and depressed. 

But if she said it was over, it was over. Period.

Kyo sighed and lay down on the bench. His eyes grew heavy and closed…

…Kyo comes out the front door of the culinary school. Sei’s car is parked at the curb. She leans on the driver’s door and smiles …. 

…Kyo can’t contain himself; he smiles as he starts to run to her…

… he hears Elise: ‘Kyo? Kyo, wake…’

“…up,” Elise said, gently shaking Kyo.

Kyo woke up to see Elise standing over him.

Kyo looked back out the window, but neither Sei nor her car were there. Of course.

He muttered, “Could I have at least got a ride in the car?”

“What?” Elise asked.

“Nothing.” Kyo sat up. “What are you doing here?”

“I used the school computer to chat with my friends back home. International wandering costs so much, I decided not to use my phone for that on this trip. I either use the hotel or a computer here. Why are you still here? Don’t you have some place to go?”

“Used to.”

“I am sorry for you, but maybe it is for the best in the long run. They were criminals, killers--”

“They were my friends. I just didn’t realize it at the time. Don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.”

“Tell me something, Kyohei: Miss Hongo told me you quit the first day. But the next day, Sei came and got you.” 

“Yeah.” He chuckled. “See that bump in the ceiling? That’s the security camera. Amy must have hacked it and told Sei exactly where I was. She called me on my cell and told me to look out the window.” He looked over his shoulder. “And there she was, smiling and waving.”

“That just it, Kyohei. She used intimidation to make you come back. And I bet she flattered you, too, to make you stay?”

“She told me they were depending on me.”

“Exactly. She wouldn’t let you go. She used every trick in the book to keep you around. And when it looked like you were breaking free of her, she fired you the next day.”

Kyohei’s anger flared. “Sei wouldn’t do that!”

“Then why did she fire you?” Elise asked.

“I don’t know. But she must have had a good reason. And she supported me wanting to become a patissier.”

“Maybe. But she would still not let go.”

“What--she’d have let me go to France---”

“I did not say she would not let you *leave.* I said she would not *let go.* I believe she would let you go to Paris. But then she would show up every weekend. She would call you up, ‘Hey, Kyo, why don’t you come and cook for me?’”

“And what’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing…if you don’t mind everyone thinking you belong to the Chinese mob princess. How many French girls would avoid you because they’re afraid they’d be shot dead if they get too close to ‘her man’?”

“Sei wouldn’t do that.”

“Non? Then why do you think Shiho never made a play for you?”

“Shiho--get real--she’s not interested--and Sei wouldn’t hurt her if she was.” He sprang to his feet. “Why am I even having this conversation?” he exclaimed. He wandered a few steps away and stood there, hands on his hips.

Elise came up behind him. “Kyohei. I say these things not to hurt you but to help you. You have a rare gift for cooking, and you pursue a dream most boys your age do not even consider, not even in France. I want to nurture that. Maybe you should think Sei did you a favor by firing you. She gave you the freedom to pursue your dream. If you’d stayed with her, either you never would have left or she would have stayed too close and smothered you. But as one door closes, another opens. But you still must walk through it.”

“I know, but…” He crossed back to the window. “I just…it was too sudden, too soon. I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.”

“It is hard, but it is out of painful transitions that growth can occur.” She smiled. “Come. You have been very kind to me this past week. Why don’t I return the favor and buy you dinner?”

Kyo smiled a little. “Well…if you let me choose the place.”

“But of course.”

As they got in the elevator, Kyo said, “Your hotel should have WiFi for guests. You can use that with your phone.”

“I know, but I do not know how.”

“I can show you.”

“You are a computer expert, too?”

“Amy thought I had a lousy data plan, so she showed me how to use the trailer’s wireless router while I was working there. It’s pretty simple.”

“Um…no, I think I’ll manage. Thanks anyway.”

/  
/

As much as he liked Elise, for the next couple of nights, Kyo went to a nearby diner after classes and did some work there. Going to the girls every evening for a year had become such a part of his life he had to go *somewhere,* anywhere other than straight home. The owner was another Love and Happy alumnus and didn’t mind if he stayed. And it gave him time to think.

He didn’t know why Sei had fired him, but he couldn’t believe it had been out of jealousy. Something else had to be going on; he knew enough about the girls‘ business that he thought he could feel it. But Elise had been right, it now gave him the chance to go to France, with a place ready made for him. Yet having the chance because Sei … because the girls had inexplicably disappeared from his life, that felt wrong, as if he was doing it because he had no choice as opposed to making the decision himself.

But what choice did he have? If he wanted to be a world renown patissier, he had to go to France, and even then, it would be tough for a non-French person to make a name for himself; Elise and her father would be much needed help in that regard. What choices did he realistically have if he did not go to France? He joked with himself that maybe he could post a flier in one of the bad parts of town advertising his skills as a chef to all-female hit squads, but he realized that if he did that, what would it say about why he had stayed with the girls?

One night he stayed longer than expected, and called Hayao and asked Hayao to come and get him. While he waited, some loud-mouthed teens were bragging about blowing off some old woman. Kyo bristled, wanted to slap them down … but he couldn’t. Jo could in one minute. Or Sei. Or Meg. Amy could screw with their accounts. What could the cook do? The thought only made him miss them more.

After Hayao showed up, complaining about being stopped by RAPT, squads of cops showed up and pounced on the teens. As Hayao and Kyo ducked out, Elise pulled in in her rental car. 

“Your mother told me you’re here,” Elise said as she stood in the door, “and I thought I would come and pick you up. But you already have plans?”

“Uh, no,” Kyo said, “not really. What is it?”

“I have a surprise for you.”

“What is it?”

“Kyo -- then it would not be the surprise. You must get in the car.”

Kyo nodded, then turned to Hayao. “Hayao, I’m sorry I put you out--”

Hayao shook his hand. “No problem, Bro’. Pretty girls beat me any day, I know. Later, man.”

“See you Hayao.”

When they were on the road, Kyo asked Elise, “Ok -- what’s the surprise?”

“Ask me where we’re going.”

“Ok -- where are we going?”

“The train station. We will catch the last train to Osaka and spend the night together. And tomorrow, we will go to the French consulate and submit your visa application.”

“But…” Kyo stammered, not sure what surprised him more, “I don’t have anything.”

“Your parents helped me prepare an overnight bag, and I have your passport and all documents you need.” She frowned. “I’m sorry. This was the best time to do it, and I thought you would be happy.”

“I am. It’s just…a surprise…”

/  
/

When they checked into the hotel near the Osaka train station, Kyo didn’t say anything about getting a separate room. But he couldn’t help but gawk that there was one bed. 

“Uh, Elise,” he said, “maybe I should go back to the front desk--”

He was cut off by her tongue shooting into his mouth. Part of him wanted it, but another part…

“Wait a minute,” he said after he pulled out of the kiss, but she kept her arms around him. “Aren’t you moving a little fast?”

“Kyohei. What did you think I meant when I asked you to spend the night with me? Although it is sweet you are such a gentleman.”

“Yeah, but…”

“I am sorry.” She sighed. “Kyohei, back home, I do not have a boyfriend. Or a girlfriend, for that matter. I am already an expert patissier; and my father and I are co-owners of the restaurant. Most people our age, they do not understand that. They can not deal with it. But you…I think you can. I feel like you’re the one I’ve been waiting for all my life. Don’t you feel that, too?”

“Well…uh…” He tried to disentangle her arms. “Don’t get me wrong, Elise. It’s not that I don’t like you. And it’s great that you understand me. But this all feels…rushed. I really would feel better if I had my own room.”

“The hotel is sold out. I checked. But have it your way -- you can either go to another hotel, or we can share a bed and not do anything. What do you want to do?”

“I‘ll stay here.”

“All right. But I’ll still give you the other half of your surprise.” She rooted around in her bag and dug out a 9 x 12 brown envelope. She handed it to him.

Kyo asked, “What is it?”

“The application forms for the visa. And your boarding pass for Paris.”

Kyo smiled as he looked at the passes, then the attached receipt…

And frowned. He glared at Elise as he felt his world come apart again. “What do you think I am, stupid? Or did you hope that after you screwed me, I‘d be so dopey I‘d go along with anything?”

“Quoi…?”

“You bought this before you left Paris! And there‘s only one way you could be certain I would go.” 

“What are you talking about?” Elise asked.

“Give me a break,” Kyo groused. “‘I’ve been waiting for you all my life.’ And I almost fell for it!” He headed for the door. “Whatever else you could say about Sei, she’d never--”

“ALL RIGHT!” Elise shouted. “You want to stomp out of here? Fine. You do that. But first you sit down and hear my say.”

“Elise--”

“Sit. Down.”

He sat in a chair by the bed. 

“Let me tell you about my father,” Elise said. “He grew up in a small town in the south of France, and like you, his family did not support him when he wanted to become a chef. But there was no Love and Happy school for him to go to. He had to run away to Paris when he was younger than you are. He had to struggle. He almost starved to death. But he got jobs in restaurants and worked his way up. He had to pay his own way to study in Japan. When he met my mother -- God rest her soul -- she was the only one who believed in him. But she was a poor girl, not the Chinese mob princess who pulls money out of her ass. Together, they made it.

“When you contacted us and we talked to Mina and we found out how you worked for killers to make money for France, he and I agreed we had to do something during our trip. So yes, he bought the ticket then. And yes, we hoped I could persuade you, but I really do like you. I want what is best for you, Kyohei, because I know how hard it can be. 

“So yes, we made mistakes, and for that, I am sorry. But no, you take the principled stand, you reject our generosity. See if I care! Tokyo must have other all-female hit squads you could be the lap dog of. More exciting than the ordinary girl from France who walks around in more than just her underwear. If that is the life you choose, then go and be happy in it. Don’t slam the door on your way out.”

Kyohei sighed and pushed off his shoes. “Mind if I take the side away from the wall?”

“Whatever makes you comfortable.”

/  
/

Kyo and Elise stood on the street outside the building that housed the French consulate in Osaka. 

She said, “Ready?”

“I don’t know. I’m not sure I’m ready for this.” He looked around, half expecting Sei and the others to come down the street at any moment. But of course they weren’t there.

And his chance to become a patissier and have a normal life with a normal girl was right in front of him.

But there would be no going back. 

Elise said, “Come one.”

“Wait a minute,” Kyo said. “You’re staying in Tokyo for a month. But I can get a long stay visa in a week -- less if I expedite it.” 

“So?”

“So give me a week to two to think about it?”

“What is there to think about?”

“Listen, Elise, you’ve been all over Sei for coming back to get me after I quit, for not giving me a choice. You want to be ‘better’ than her? You give me the chance to think about this and decide for myself what I want to do. I want to go because I want to, not because I feel I’m being pressured into it.”

“The airline tickets my father bought are not refundable.”

“I didn’t make him buy them when he did.”

Elise smiled a little. “So running with the wild women gave you a little backbone, yes? All right Kyo, you can have a week or two. Now, what can we do to kill time in Osaka before the train home?”

“I think I remember the sights from the last time I was here, and it looks like they’ve cleaned up the damage.”

“‘Damage’?”

“I’ll explain over lunch…”

/  
/

Meg woke up and looked at Jo. They were lying on the ground naked under a tarp, in the woods near the shore. It was so calm and peaceful, as opposed to the tumult of the last few days.

Looking at Jo sleeping, Meg resolved that she was done. No more bounties. No more cybots. No more ANYTHING. She would take what was left of the cash Sei had given them and use it to take Jo some place quiet and safe. And then give what was left after that to charity … or burn it in a fire, whatever. She did not want to owe Sei anything. After all they had done for that bitch, she had got in bed with their enemies and left them all twisting in the wind. She felt worse for Kyohei. Meg refused to believe that seeing Kyo falling for Elise had nothing to do Sei firing him and how she had gone about it. “Heartbroken” wouldn’t begin to describe what he was going through, but at least there was someone already waiting for him, and Elise was probably a better human being than Sei could ever hope to be.

No, Meg decided, Sei Ping Ho could go to hell. She was done with that woman; if she never heard that name again, it would be too soon. If Sei was drowning, Meg wouldn’t lift a finger to save her -- even throw her an anchor to help her sink. From now on, the only one Meg would worry about was Jo.

/  
/

“All set, Amy?” Sei’s voice sounded in Amy’s earpiece as she worked at her laptop in the Conductor’s lair, the effeminate hacker in a space suit sitting nearby.

“Almost,” Amy said. “Should have it all ready by the time you’re in position.”

“Good.” She heard Sei take a deep breath. “One more thing: Any word on Kyohei?”

Amy froze.

“Amy?”

“Yeah, Sei, uh…A couple of days ago, Osaka traffic cams caught him and Elise at the French Consulate in Osaka.”

“Probably to get him a long stay visa.”

“He didn’t go in, and there’s no visa application in his name. But there is a one way plane ticket.”

“When was it bought?”

“About a week after he first contacted them.”

Sei chuckled. “They assumed he’d agree, probably with Elise’s inducements, but it sounds as if he’s standing up for himself and considering his options. Good for him.”

“How do you know?”

“Because otherwise there’d be a pending visa application in his name. Still…it is his dream, Amy.” Her voice shook a little. “I just wish I had a chance to…no. It doesn’t matter. If the Navarres ease up, he’ll come around, especially when he realizes there’s no more ‘plan B.’”

“Sei--”

“Amy. We knew going in how this would turn out. I’m fine with it. I just wanted you to know that you and the others were like family to me. I wouldn’t have canceled your contracts if Bailan hadn’t tied my hands, and I’m glad we have one more chance to show them how it’s done in Tokyo. Whoever’s left standing, let them know that, please.”

“I will, Sei.”

“Thank you. Let me know when everything is ready.”

/  
/

Sei had hoped taking the secondary roads to RAPT headquarters would get her around RAPT road blocks. No such luck -- she was stopped at a roadblock within sight of RAPT headquarters. There was no concealing her identity, but after she got out of the car, she did her best to try and bully the officer in charge. “Well, if everyone knew about it,” she was saying, “it wouldn’t be classified, now, would it? Now for the last time, let me--”

“Officer, officer!” T. G.’s voice sounded from the other side of the cops.

Sei followed their gaze. T. G. was running towards them… but it took Sei a moment to recognize her. She almost seemed slightly shorter, her hair red and more curly, wearing a blue top and matching skirt. But what stuck out was … it had to be gold face paint, right? But all over her body and on her hands, too?

Two men were running up to the cops beside her. One reminded Sei of a dissipated rock star, with long black hair and five o’clock shadow. He had a sleeveless leather shirt and leather gauntlets on his wrists….and three spikes sticking out of each gauntlet. They looked like they were made of bone. Were they parts of the gauntlets or sticking through them? She couldn’t tell. The other man was in shades of blue -- blue jacket, blue pants, light blue shirt. He also had stubble but seemed more disciplined than the other man. He had short brown hair and brown eyes …. Sei could feel herself being attracted to him. He also seemed to have a military bearing in spite of being in civilian clothes. 

“Thank the stars I’ve found you,” T. G. went on, smiling. “Our vehicle broke down and we need--”

The lead cop rounded, pointing his weapons at the strange group. “Freeze! All of you, weapons down.”

The military man shrugged. “Ok.” He pulled something that looked like a flashlight from a holster on his hip. “Have you seen my force lance?”

“Your what?” the lead cop stammered.

The flashlight abruptly lengthened to about two meters long, and the military man swung it up to catch the lead cop on the jaw with one end. Rock star also went into action, incapacitating the cops nearest him, stabbing one in the neck with the arm spikes. Then Military Man pointed his “force lance” at the other cops and the end flashed; the cops he aimed at fell. Rock star also had some kind of pistol out and fired on the remaining cops.

“Clear!” Rock Star said.

“Impressive,” Sei admitted. “Who are your new friends, T. G.?”

Rock Star frowned. “Friend of yours, Trance?”

“Sei and I have never met,” T. G. -- Trance -- answered. “But she’s going the same place we are.”

Military asked, “Which is?”

Trance pointed at RAPT headquarters. “There.”

“Ok.” Military man said. “Sei, is it? I’m Dylan ….” He indicated the rock star. “… this is Rhade, and … Trance…”

Sei said, “Who knows me without ever having met me.”

Dylan shrugged. “She does that.”

“Sei,” Trance said as she opened the sports car’s passenger door (which Sei was sure she had locked), “if you follow my directions precisely, we can evade your enemies.” She climbed into the back seat.

Rhade said, “Shotgun.”

Dylan shrugged. “He always gets shotgun.” He climbed in back next to Trance. “Hey, it’s roomier than I thought it would be back here.”

Rhade got in and closed the door. Sei huffed out some air, got in the car, and started it up.

“Keep going on the route you’d been taking,” Trance said. “I’ll tell you when, where, and how to turn.”

“Ok,” Sei said. She stepped on the gas and worked around the road block. “Can the day get any stranger?”

Rhade smiled. “Yes.”

“Rhetorical.”

“I know,” Rhade said. “But if you think this is strange, you ain’t seen nothing yet. By the way, you seem pretty tough. Have you thought about having children?”

“Rhade,” Dylan groaned.

“What?” Rhade protested. “I’m just making conversation. And besides, you get all the babes anyway…”

“Not all the time!”

Trance said, “And I think she’s already in love with someone else.”

“Don’t tell me--” Sei started. “No, never mind…”

/  
/

“What’s happening to Tokyo!?” Kyo exclaimed. He stood on his balcony and saw the smoke rising above the distant skyline and heard the emergency vehicles. Then he heard something on his TV about an aerial view of a mech. He went back inside, and saw on his TV, Django racing through the streets of Tokyo, its guns blazing.

“What the…” he said. “What the hell are you guys into now?”

/  
/

The cybernetic thing that had called itself Rick Glenford lay dead on the floor in the chamber with the gigantic brain. Being cradled by Jo in a growing pool of her own blood that was mixing with fluid pouring out of the ruined brain case, Sei felt no satisfaction at Glenford’s death or fear of her impending demise.

All she could think about was Kyohei.

“You’ll love Paris, Kyo,” she whispered. “I wish I was--”

“What the--” Rhade’s voice stammered. Sei looked to her right. Rhade was standing near a side passage near the elevator. Dylan and Trance came up behind him.

Jo had seen them and was starting to draw one of her pistols, but Sei said, “No, Jo-- it’s ok -- they’re…” She coughed. “….friends.” 

“All right.” Jo holstered her weapon.

Rhade, Dylan, and Trance spotted her and ran over. 

Sei went on: “Dylan, Trance, Rhade, this is Jo. Jo, I met them on the way over here--” She coughed up more blood. “…got me here in time to die…Kyo…”

Rhade took a deep breath, seeming to sniff the air, then put a hand on Jo’s forearm. “Those bumps -- do you know what they are? Do you know what you are?”

“Huh?” Jo asked.

“Not now,” Dylan said. He turned to Trance. “How’s Sei?”

Trance crouched by Sei. “She’s been hurt bad -- lead slugs--”

“Get out of here,” Sei rasped. “And if you find Kyohei Tachibana, tell him--”

“No,” Trance said. “You’re not done ye--”

The giant brain started to arc brighter than the sun.

“Uh, Dylan?” Rhade said. “I think it’s time to go.”

Sei said, “It’s too late--” She coughed again and whispered, “Goodbye, Kyo … I…”

Dylan held his hand in front of his eyes. “Bek--er, Trance, get us--”

“I’m trying, Dylan--” Trance reached one arm towards the brain. Her body began to glow, blazing in gold light. Gold mist formed around her, reaching towards a shadow forming in the light near the brain, what looked like two nested cubes rotating inside each other…

…light and noise washed over them….

…and then…


	2. Chapter 2

Meg trudges through the abandoned streets of Tokyo, Jo’s coat hanging on her, all but oblivious to the wrecked RAPT vehicles and corpses she passes. Somewhere some music is playing, some Jazz piece. She doesn’t pay attention to it.

At last she comes to the base of the RAPT building, the debris of the bifurcated upper half collapsed around the base. He eyes focus on a girder on the upper section, and she sees Jo’s scarf hanging on it. 

‘Farewell, Jo,’ she mutters.

She whirls at a sound behind her, drawing her new semiautomatic handguns from their holsters as her own orange Django comes behind her. They fire in unison…

…only Jo is standing there, and as she takes the hits, she bursts into flame…

‘No!’ Meg screams. ‘Jo--’

Meg jerked awake, finding herself leaning against the wall under the window in the abandoned building RAPT had cornered her, Leo, and Takane in. She looked down at the new handguns. She’d ordered them and their holsters from Leo, a set to rival Jo’s; and he’d retrieved them from his shop just before RAPT had closed in and they’d had to run for it. 

‘So Jo sacrificed herself to help Sei for nothing?’ Meg thought. RAPT may have been in disarray, but what was left of it wanted revenge. And if…if…she had to face it -- if Sei and Jo were dead, then they would settle for whoever was left.

And that was just fine with Meg.

Next to her, Takane hefted an old M16, her boken strapped to her back and said, “I don’t know how you can sleep with all that racket.” She was referring to the jazz music being played by the RAPT SWAT team, to try and psych them out before they attacked.

“They try to contact us?” Meg asked.

“No,” Takane answered. “And I can’t blame them. If there are any good cops in their ranks, they see us as cop killers and want to take us down. And the bad apples…well…” She trailed off.

Crouching on the other side of the room with an assault rifle, Leo said, “We’re going to srtike first. Meg, I’m going to open fire. Hopefully, if they go for a full breach, they’ll focus on me, and you and Takane can--”

“No,” Meg said flatly. “I can’t speak for Takane, but I’m not going anywhere.”

“Meg…think about this. You’re still young. You have your whole life ahead of you--”

“My life is over, Leo. I wanted to keep fighting, but…it just doesn’t matter anymore. Nothing matters with Jo gone. All I want to do now is make sure I take as many of those RAPT bastards with me before I go. Takane, you can still try and escape.”

“If it’s all the same to you,” Takane said, “I’ll stick with you guys to the end.”

Meg turned to Leo. “There’s your answer.”

Leo nodded. “Ok. You ready for this?”

“Give me a second.” Meg closed her eyes and bumped one of the guns against her forehead. She whispered, “A couple more minutes, Baby, and I’ll be back in your arms. Just wait for me.” The thought of joining Jo in death lifted the weight from Meg’s heart. She smiled as calm spread through her. She open her eyes, hefted her weapons, and nodded to Leo. “Ok.”

Leo nodded. “On three. One…two…th--what the--hold on--”

Outside, an engine grew louder. They peaked out the window long enough to see a RAPT aircraft nose down towards the RAPT command van. A small figure leapt out just before impact, landing amidst the RAPT troopers and immediately disabling one of them with a police baton. She grabbed a machine gun with her free hand. She was a whirling dervish of death through the soldiers, beating them and shooting them. Meg couldn’t see the girls face; her exposed skin seemed to be covered by tin foil. But her build, height, the way she moved…

“Jo!?” Meg pushed the door open over Leo’s protestations. “Jo!” She began firing on the RAPT soldiers from behind. Takane and Leo came out behind her, firing. 

The girl turned; purple eyes leered at her. “Meg,” she rasped.

Meg recognized the voice. “Maria!?”

Maria dropped to her knees as Meg got over to her. “Meg…whoo…think I overdid it…”

“Maria, what--” Meg broke off as she touched what she thought was tinfoil. But they seemed to be stuck to Maria’s skin and felt like scabs. “What--”

“FREEZE!” A voice shouted from behind them. Armed and angry RAPT officers were coming up behind them. “Lose the weapons! On your knees, NOW!”

Meg, Takane, Maria and Leo complied, and were on their knees next to each other. Meg remained calm. RAPT wasn’t interested in making arrests, so in just another minute at most--

The lead cop sneered, “If you have any outstanding personal issues, I suggest you settle them now.”

Maria nodded. “All right.” She turned to Meg. “Who’s Kyo?”

“What?” Meg said.

“What?” the cop stammered.

Maria turned to the lead cop. “You said I should settle outstanding issues, and this has been bothering me for a few days.”

Meg blushed. “I’m sorry, but if she’s anything like her…sister--” She broke off. “Oh, crap! You and Jo ARE sisters. Ick!” She regained some composure and turned back to the lead cop. “Anyway, Jo can be a little….literal…for lack of a better way to put it. Don’t worry, I’m not going to stop you from shooting me. So let me clear this up?”

The lead cop sighed. “Ok.”

Meg turned to Maria. “Now, what was your question?”

“Who’s Kyo?” Maria asked.

“Kyo? He’s our chef…was our chef. Why do you ask?”

“You keep mentioning him in your sleep, saying things like, ‘I’m stuffed,’ and ‘that’s Jo’s food--’”

“Wait a minute,” a RAPT trooper said. “You have a chef?”

Meg smiled. “Oh, yeah. And he was good! My mouth would water at the thought of what he made for us when we got back from a--”

The lead cop rounded on the trooper. “Excuse me, private, but is this really important?”

“You heard her,” the trooper said. “They had a chef. I spent lunch trying not to barf up these freeze-dried rations and these bitches have a--”

“Had--” Meg corrected.

“--had--thank you--had a personal--”

“PRIVATE!” the lead cop thundered.

“Sir.” He resumed his place in line, weapon aimed at the girls.

The lead cop turn back to Maria. “Anything else?”

“No,” Maria said. “I think that covers it. I just wanted to distract you long enough to give him a chance to make his play.”

“What ‘him’? You have another buddy out there?”

“I don’t know his name. But I’ve smelled him since the start of the fight and if he’s not with you I guess he may want to help us. Either way, he’s standing behind you.”

The heavyset, muscular blonde man standing behind the lead cop said, “Gentlemen, I invite you to join me on the Plains of Sabotino.” A woman with long blonde hair stood next to him; she wore BDUs with a strange purple and gold camouflage pattern on them.

The lead cop spun. “FREEZE--”

The blonde man and the blonde woman went into action. Meg didn’t really pay attention as she, Leo, and Takane picked up their weapons and took out the remaining cops. But near the end of the fight, Meg saw the blonde woman pick up a RAPT radio and breathe on it; did gold mist really come out of her mouth? Then Meg had to fire on someone to her left and forgot all about it.

The blonde man helped Maria. “This way.” He led them past the burning RAPT vehicles as a van came to the curb.

Meg quipped, “Like we have a choice?” as she, Leo, and Takane followed the blonde man and Maria into the back of the van. The blond woman got in the front passenger seat; a man with gray eyes and a mop of dark hair was driving.

Meg was the last in and closed the door. The van headed down the street. “We should hurry,” Meg said. “It won’t be long before--”

“Don’t worry,” the blonde woman said. “RAPT’s com grid is having a worse day. We’ll have plenty of time to ditch this van, find another vehicle, and get to my safe house.”

“And why should we trust you?”

The blonde man turned to Meg. “Because you have no one else right now.” He was sitting next to Maria and turned back to her. “Maria, right?”

“Yes,” Maria rasped. 

“Well, Maria, I am very pleased and proud that you have survived this far. And don’t worry. I know you feel like crap, but that’s because your body’s working overtime to heal itself.”

“I suppose. But what’s this silver stuff?”

“Scar tissue.”

Meg stammered, “What? I’ve never seen scars like that.”

The blonde man turned back to Meg. “That’s because you’ve never seen a Nietzschean with burns over a good chunk of her body. Maria and Jo have engineered immune systems with nanobots enhancing their natural defenses. That’s why the scabs are silver, not only on the burns but in the gunshot wounds. The nanobots are literally holding her together as her body starts to regenerate. The big problem is digging the bullets out. Her body is trying to metabolize them, and she’s giving herself lead poisoning. But with proper -- that is to say, my -- medical care, she’ll be right as rain in a few days. Take her to any hospital and she dies.”

Meg’s hand wandered towards her holster. “Who are you? How do you know so much? And what’s a neat-sheen?”

“Nietzschean,” the blonde man said. “Well, in no particular order, I know so much because after I arrived here, I made a point of learning who all the players were before I made my move, and along the way, my associates convinced me I need their help. I originally designed Maria’s species, and my brother stole my research and came…here…to test his own insane theories. Like any good hack, Falco tried to put his own mark on it by changing things. Hence the eye color and bioluminescent tattoos. But he also screwed some things up. That’s why Maria has been fighting over you. It’s not garden-variety lesbianism. She’s obeying the male imperative to prove her worth, her superiority, to a female, so she’d be chosen…as a mate.”

Maria frowned. “Hmm. That makes sense. I always wanted to be better than Jo, but I didn’t know why.”

The blonde man smiled. “That’s why. Of course, males want to prove their worth to females so they can reproduce. You see where Falco blew it. Or maybe he’s just rubbing it in my face; he always liked girl-on-girl porn more than I did--”

Leo snorted. “And what’s a female supposed to act like?”

“Let me put it this way,” the blonde man said: “I’m pleased my brother didn’t try to make any males. And as to who we are, since we are going to be working together -- yes, we are, Meg -- introductions all around: Our driver is called Elysian.”

“Call me Ely,” the dark-haired man said. “Less of a mouthful.”

“And the lovely…young…lady is called T. G.”

Meg asked, “What does--”

“Don’t ask,” the blonde man said, “because that’s a whole new can of worms. Anyway, those two are local, you could say. I am Drago Musevini. You may call me Peter. I am from another universe. And genetically, I am Jo and Maria’s father.”

“I see.” Meg smiled. “Well, you can drop us anywhere. I’m sure the people at your group home are looking for you.”

Peter--Drago--Crazy Guy smiled. “Know those bumps on Jo’s forearms?”

Meg nodded. “Her bone spurs?”

“Not bone *spurs.* They’re vestigial bone *blades.* Another one of my hack brother’s changes. Maria has them too. Go ahead, check.”

Meg ran one hand on Maria’s forearms and felt the bumps, in the same place they were on Jo.

“Now, we can drop you off,” Peter went on, “and you can get yourself killed if you want, but I’m kind of biased against watching fertile females commit death-by-cop. No matter how bad it seems, where there’s life, there’s hope. It‘s in your best interest to stick with us.”

Meg nodded. “Ok. Fair enough.” ‘For now,’ she added to herself.


	3. Chapter 3

“We’ve got you dead to rights, kid!” The younger of the two detectives shot out of his chair and got in Kyohei’s face. “You’re in with those terrorists. And you’re going down--”

“That’s enough,” the older detective counseled. As Young Turk sat down, Old Hand went on: “Kyohei, we’re just trying to help you here. You’re an impressionable young man, and you were working for a beautiful and -- let’s be honest -- manipulative woman. It only makes sense that you’d get more involved in her business -- you wanted to impress her. But you don’t have to go down for her. Help us help you, Kyohei.” He gestured at the photos on the table between them. Along with the surveillance shot of himself and Jo from the time she’d dressed as a guy, there were blown up photos of a man with short dark hair, a man with long hair, and a girl with some kind of face paint on. “Stop lying, Kyo. Tell us who Sei’s associates are.”

Kyo held his face impassive. The hours since RAPT had been blown up had been the worst of his life. The news footage of Django blasting its way into the headquarters before the explosion had only made him more worried. Then RAPT cops had kicked open the front door and arrested him at gunpoint while they turned the house upside down. He’d lost track of the hours he had spent in this interview room while the cops tried to cajole and threaten information out of him. If he hadn’t lost faith in RAPT months ago, he would have been outraged. Likewise, though scared and nervous, the cops’ Good Cop Bad Cop routine didn’t faze him, partly because of the TV shows he’d seen; partly from Sei’s advice about dealing with intimidation; and partly because after having Jo foam at the mouth with her gun pointed at his crotch and only not shooting because of Sei, not much else could sweat him.

He said calmly, “If you already know they worked with Sei, why don’t you know who they are? What do you need--”

Young Turk shot to his feet again. “That’s it! I’m done playing with this punk. RAPT has some pretty broad emergency powers, kid, and don’t think--”

The door to the interview room opened and another man walked in and stood by the door. He was middle aged and bald with a gray back fringe. “That’s enough,” he said quietly.

Old Hand stood up. “Agent Stark--”

“I said enough.” He nodded his head sideways towards the door.

The two cops shambled out and closed the door behind them.

The bald man -- Stark? -- thrust his hand in his pockets and wandered over to the other side of the table. “Kyhohei Tachibana,” he said professorially. “Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. One of the top students of the Love and Happy Culinary Design School with dreams of going to France to become a pastissier. Until recently employed as Sei Ping Ho’s personal chef. Parenthetically, I’d never heard the word ‘patissier’ until I read your file. Have I missed anything?”

Kyohei remembered what Sei had said during their night out about someone trying to get one up on him. ‘Are you the arrogant one who will make a mistake?’ he thought.

Kyo said, “I don’t know. Have you?”

The man chuckled. “Kyohei, I am Agent Constantine Stark. I am spearheading the US government’s side of the investigation of this morning’s incident. I’m satisfied you don’t have anything pertinent to add to our investigation, and I am going to let you go. But before you leave, would you like to know what happened to your friends?”

Kyo couldn’t help himself -- he sprang to his feet. “They’re here?”

“I am at liberty to tell you what happened to them.”

Kyo calmed down. “And what do you want in exchange for that?”

“Nothing.”

“All right then. What happened?”

“It’s better if I show you. Come with me.”

Kyohei followed Stark down the hall to a room almost like a theatre, with several rows of seats, a huge wall screen, and controls to one side. 

Stark addressed one of the men sitting at the desk: “Play the video for Mr. Tachibana.”

“Yes, Patriarch.” The man’s fingers danced on the keyboard.

“‘Patriarch’?” Kyohei asked. 

“A nickname my men have for me,” Stark said. “Kyohei, what you are about to see is security camera footage from inside the RAPT building at the epicenter of the blast. It will be disturbing.”

Kyohei just nodded as the footage started: Aimed at an elevator from an overhead camera. The door slid open and Rick Glenford walked out, disappearing under the camera’s view, as Sei came out, gun drawn. Her eyes widened and her lips moved briefly; Kyohei thought she said ‘What the--’ She listened to someone speaking from where Glenford had gone. Then several things happened at once: The muzzle of her gun flashed as several red splotches appeared on her coat and Django’s head burst through the wall behind her.

“Sei!” Kyohei cried in spite of himself. “No!”

Sei fell to all fours as Jo came around Django’s shoulder. Sei pointed and gave an order. Jo had her guns out; she shouted something and fired several rounds. Then she holstered her guns as she crouched behind Sei. Sei coughed up blood as she spoke. Then they looked to their right -- Kyo’s left -- and the three people he’d been shown pictures of came into the frame as static filled the screen. Then it went blank.

The image reappeared, rolled back to just after Jo had cradled Sei in her arms, and froze.

“I was a soldier for a very long time,” Stark said gently. “I’ve seen men wounded in battle. The bullets missed Sei’s heart; that’s why she didn’t die instantly. But even if she hadn’t been vaporized, it’s very likely she would have died from her wounds in a few minutes--”

Tears streamed down Kyohei’s cheeks. “Who shot her!?”

“Internal security. That’s all I can say.”

“And what caused the explosion? You can’t tell me Sei and Jo were suicide bombers. I don’t believe it!”

“Our investigation is ongoing. The evidence will speak for itself. But for now, you have to accept that your friends are gone. I‘m sorry.”

Kyohei’s lips tightened as he stepped closer to the Patriarch. He glared up into the man’s eyes, unbowed. “I don‘t believe you. They‘re not dead. And they‘ll be coming for whoever shot them. Count on it.”

The Patriarch smiled. “I’m sure Sei would be flattered by your loyalty. Now, I think you’d best go home. I’m sure your girlfriend, Elise, will be worried.”

One of the other agents put a hand on Kyo’s shoulder, but he smirked at the Patriarch. “Elise isn’t my girlfriend. You finally made a mistake.” He turned and shrugged off the other agent’s hand as he was lead out.

When the door had closed, the Patriarch turned to the subordinate at his console. “Make doubly sure the surveillance on him is discreet; if he’s picked up any good habits from Sei and her girls, he’ll know enough to spot something too obvious. But when he and the girls reach out to each other, I want us to be ready to move.”

“Patriarch.”

The Patriarch turned as the gray-haired man known to most on this Earth only as The Professor came in. He pointed behind him. “Who was that?”

“Unimportant.” The Patriarch smiled. “Professor Musevini…Falco. I’m just and old solider -- probably the oldest soldier ever -- so there are some things I don’t understand. Perhaps you can explain them to me. When I left you and Rick Glenford in charge of the Asian branch of our operation, you both assured me you had the situation well in hand. Tell me -- does the situation look in hand to you?”

“Uh…”

Stark snapped his fingers. The footage he’d shown Kyohei replayed to the point where Dylan, Rhade, and Trance entered the frame and stopped.

“Dylan Hunt,” the Patriarch said, “Trance Gemini, and Telamachus Rhade -- three people from our home universe. Sixteen hundred years after your time, but still from our home. How did they get here?”

“Uh…yes…are you sure …uh…you are….”

“No answer? Ok. Try this.” He snapped his fingers. The dash camera of a RAPT car played outside an abandoned building, Meg, a wounded Maria, Leo and Takane on their knees before RAPT soldiers. Movement behind the soldiers, then a fight broke out. The image froze on a heavyset blonde man attacking a RAPT soldier.

Falco looked like he crapped in his pants.

“That’s right,” the Patriarch said. “Your dear brother Drago is here, too. So not only has RAPT headquarters been blown to smithereens thanks to some teenage girls you reported you had managed; and one of your own creations had a hand in it; but now, people from our universe are arriving, and this is commiserate reports of resources you have been diverting for some time now. Our friends in Zero are not pleased and have tasked me to clean up the mess by any means necessary. I’ll save you the embarrassment of lying, Falco. Let’s just begin with where you decided to open your own portals to the Route of Ages behind my back…”

/  
/

When the RAPT squad car pulled up in front of his house, Kyohei couldn’t get out of it fast enough. It was almost midnight, but his parents were still up. 

Mom was waiting at the door. “Are you all right? Elise called; she’s worried. Have you called her back?”

“Not yet.” 

Kyo tried to get to the stairs, but Mom stayed in his way. “You have to help the police, dear,” she said. “Jo and …that woman may be dead, but the other two are out there, and if you know anything--”

“What are you saying? You want me to betray my friends?”

“They’re terrorists and criminals! You never should have taken that job. I just heard on the TV that they’d planned to assassinate the emperor.”

Kyo snorted. “TV. I guess it has to be true then, Mom.”

“Kyohei, those girls were bad news; you never should have worked for them as long as you did. Elise is a nice girl and can get you to France, like you wanted. Forget about those bitches.” Mom raised her chin. “I’m glad Sei’s dead, and I hope the others are shot dead, too. And there’s no one else I would say that about. Think it over.”

Dad stayed to one side. “Listen to your mother, Kyo,” he said quietly. 

“If you two had a clue…never mind.” Kyo charged up the stairs.

Mom called, “And call Elise!”

Up in his room, Kyo slammed the door and paced in a circle. “They’re not dead,” he groused. “The recording stopped before the explosion. They’re n-n-not-t-t-t…” But the tears started and he slumped onto his bed with his head in his hands.

He finally looked up. “Are you out there, God?” he asked. “Do you even exist? I’ve never asked you for anything in my life, but now I am: Please don’t let Sei be dead. Give me a miracle; don’t let Sei be dead…”


	4. Chapter 4

Doyle rested against the *Eureka Maru’s* forward landing leg and watched as Beka Valentine paced her cage under her freighter’s nose cone. “Watching you is making me feel tired,” the blonde android quipped. 

Beka didn’t stop pacing but looked at Doyle. “I didn’t think androids got tired.”

“I’ll remember that the next time my batteries get too low.” Though she was trying to keep the mood light, Doyle’s sensors could back up what was obvious about Beka’s anxiety, and it mirrored her own concerns. It had been just before dawn when Dylan, Trance, and Rhade had gone into the cave mouth in the nearby hill, to infiltrate the “haunted mansion” out of their sight, near the town of Boyagen. Now, as Seefra 1’s two suns sank to the horizon, Dylan still had not returned. And for all her complaining about how helping him wouldn’t make her any money, Beka was getting worried and she wasn’t hiding it.

Doyle didn’t say anything as she opened a communications link to the orbiting *Andromeda Ascendant.* =Andromeda?= she transmitted silently. =Anything new at your end?=

=No,= the sentient High Guard cruiser radioed back. =I can’t even tell you if that’s good news or bad.=

=I know. Thanks anyway.= “I just contacted Andromeda,” Doyle said aloud. “She hasn’t detected anything.”

“Uh-huh.” Beka stopped in her tracks and faced the cave mouth. “Five more minutes, then we go in.”

“Dylan said to--” Doyle’s back stiffened.

=Doyle--=

=I feel it, Andromeda.=

Beka turned to Doyle. “What?”

“I’m feeling zero point energy. Someone is tesseracting to this location. Andromeda confirmed it.”

Beka drew her pistol. “Where?”

“Right--”

Blue light flashed next to Beka and she yelped, jumping to one side. Dylan and Rhade had appeared, cringing. Next to them Trance was crouched next to a teenage girl with silver hair and red eyes, wearing a tank top, panties, and gun holsters. Trance and the girl cradling a twenty-ish dark haired woman in a blue coat and a white halter top that was barely covering her breasts; but she was bleeding from multiple bullet wounds. 

“--next to you,” Doyle finished.

“Thanks,” Beka said. “Got it.”

The silver-haired girl looked around, disoriented. “What the-- where--” She saw Seefra’s suns. “What -- I mean--”

“Yeah,” said, “Methus 2 blinks. Get used to it.”

“Quick intros,” Dylans said: “Jo, Sei, meet Beka and Doyle. This is Seefra 1. Your life has been turned upside down. Sorry about that.”

Jo’s eyes found Doyle and she was obviously undressing the android with her eyes. “Hi.”

Doyle turned to Beka. “Harper’s either going to be disappointed or become her best--”

Trance said, “No, Sei--not yet--” She put her hand on Sei’s sternum. “Take my light.”

Sei inhaled sharply as she seemed to glow with gold light that faded. But Sei seemed stronger. Trance sagged and pinched the bridge of her nose.

Dylan asked, “Trance?”

“I’ll be fine, Dylan,” Trance said. “I’m feeding energy directly to her cells, to keep her alive, but we have to operate now -- remove the bullets and fix the damage.”

“Can you teleport?” Dylan asked.

“And keep Sei alive? No.”

Dylan and Rhade helped Sei to her feet. “Beka--” Dylan started. 

“On it--” Beka lead the way to the steps to the airlock. “Doyle--”

*Maru* rumbled to life. 

“And Andromeda is altering her orbit,” Doyle added.

Jo frowned. “How did you do that?”

Doyle tapped her head. “Wireless uplink -- part of the fun of being an android.”

“*You’re* an android?” Jo said as the group got into the *Maru’s* common area. “I’d love to meet your--” She broke off an looked around. “Wait a minute -- where are we supposed to--”

“We have artificial gravity and inertia dampening technology,” Trance as explained as Dylan and Rhade helped Sei into a bunk. “For the most part, you won’t feel it, even though the ship is already air born.” 

Dylan slapped her shoulder. “Come on. If anyone can save your friend, it’s Trance.”

Sei looked at Jo. “I’ll be all right.”

Jo nodded and followed Dylan forward into the cockpit, just in time to see the sky turn black outside Beka’s canopy. Dylan and Rhade took stations in the rear of the cockpit. ‘If this is a mind game,’ Jo thought, ‘it has an incredible budget.’ 

“Heard what you said,” Beka said form the pilot‘s chair. “I appreciate your skepticism, but as we’re already pulling 300 g’s, I really don’t want to turn the dampers off.”

“I won’t argue.”

“Beka,” Rhade said, “I think you and Jo will have a lot to talk about later.”

“What?” Jo stammered. “Ok, assuming all this crap is really happening, and I really am in another universe, how could that have anything to do with me?”

“Jo, have you eaten?” Dylan asked. “I’ve learned from experience that having your life turned upside down shouldn’t be on an empty stomach. Although not too much or you‘ll throw up. I learned that the hard way.”

“Huh?”

“Andromeda,” Beka said, “we’re coming in with our medical emergency--”

Andromeda’s face appeared on the monitor above Beka’s station. “You’re cleared to land, *Maru.* I have a gurney standing by in the airlock.”

The view wheeled around and the gigantic silver sculpture of the *Andromeda Ascendant* grew to fill the canopy.

Jo managed, “Whoa.”

“Why thank you,” Andromeda said. She left the screen.

“Damn,” Jo said. “Ok. You’ve played straight with me so far so, I guess I can go along for a while. Way I figure it, either this will all make sense, or I’ll wake up any minute and find out this is all from a secret sauce Kyo tried. This day can’t get any weirder, can it?”

Beka smiled. “It can.” 

Dylan focused on his console. He knew from hard experience what Jo was in for, but there was no helping it. He often said, ‘It’s never easy,’ and the last couple of days had proved that ….


	5. Chapter 5

**Earlier on Seefra 1…**

Dylan studied the tube made of white leather. It looked like a standard Nietzschean bone blade gauntlet, with three slots in it for bone blades to poke through, but slightly smaller than what one would expect to fit a Nietzscehan.

He turned his attention to the cardboard box Rhade had dropped on Dylan’s table in the Oasis, Harper’s bar on Seefra One. The box was loaded with gauntlets, tops, bottom, and other leather goods suitable for Nietzscheans…assuming there were relatively short Nietzscheans. Furthermore, Rhade, who stood by the table visibly excited, was the only Nietzschean in the Seefra system. Beka, Doyle, Trance, and Harper, were also seated around the table. Other cardboard boxes were on the floor.

Dylan said, “And this is what you got so excited about? Box after box of Nietzschean apparel?”

Harper snorted. “You’re all set for life. You’ll be quite the snappy dresser.”

“It’s not just the clothes,” Rhade said. “It’s a bit of family history – my wife’s family to be precise.” He fished a white, sleeveless long coat – that again, looked much smaller than what one would expect for a Nietzschean – and turned out the collar tag. There was a coat of arms. “See? This is from Mink Pride – my wife’s family.” He dropped the coat back into the box. “A little piece of home.”

Doyle said, “My scans confirmed its three hundred years old, but thanks to the topsy turvey physics around here, it might as well have been boxed up yesterday.”

“Still,” Beka said, “Mink pride? I never heard of them.”

Rhade smirked. “What kind of a matriarch are you?”

“I’m new to the job. Please don’t make mommy pull rank.”

Rhade gestured to Dylan.

Dylan nodded and said, “As you may have guessed, Beka, Mink Pride was very big in the fashion industry before the Fall. Members of Mink Pride designed High Guard and Home Guard uniforms.”

Beka smiled. “Ah. That explains the necklines.”

Dylan nodded. “I’m guessing that Rhade thinks he’s found samples of Uber Chic. In the 9780’s, there were some Nietzschean pop stars who were very popular. Suddenly, all things Nietzschean became popular – clothes, books, jewelry – some kids even had fake bone blades implanted in their forearms.”

Rhade picked up the story: “Mink pride saw the trend before anyone else did and invested in it to the tune of several billion credits. That’s billion with a ‘B.’ Their product launch was the biggest in the history of history. And the next day, the very next day, the Nietzscean rebellion began. Not surprisingly, uber chic fell out of favor in about five minutes. Mink pride took a bath; whole fortunes evaporated overnight. They never forgave the Drago-Kasov pride for talking them into backing the rebels. They became Commonwealth loyalists, and Mink pride scouts were the ones who found the slipstream route to Terrazed.”

“Huh,” Beka said. “And this was just passed down when you went camping?”

“Well, Beka, my wife was from Mink Pride, and on top of that, my father had fifteen wives. So I grew up surrounded by three generations of females with every blood tie you can imagine. There’s no way I could not have learned about it. And in answer to your next question, yes, that is the reason I decided to adopt monogamy as my lifestyle.”

“Acutually, I wasn’t going to--” Beka broke off and looked past Dylan’s shoulder. “Uh, Dylan? I think this is for you.”

Dylan turned and saw that Flaven had entered and was coming over to the table.

Dylan rose to face the old Paradine. “Flaven. What brings you here?”

“Can we talk privately, Dear One?”

“Ok. But I’m in no mood for cryptic crap today, so whatever it is give it to me straight.”

8

8

Dylan and Flaven went to Harper’s lab in the back of the bar.

“Ok, Flaven, what is it?”

“You have to give it all up.”

“Give what up?”

“Your name, your past, your friends the *Andromeda,* this system – everything.”

“I asked you not to be cryptic!”

“This is as non-cryptic as it gets, Dear One.”

“Why do I have to give everything up?”

“In Paradine terms, you are a child, and everything you are and do count as ‘childish things.’ So in order to mature, you have to give them up.”

“Maybe I’ll be the Paradine who never grows up.”

“Not acceptable. And potentially disastrous.”

“So assuming I agree to this, how do I do it?”

“When the time is right, you’ll just know.”

“And we’re back to cryptic--”

Andromeda broke in from a monitor: “Dylan, can I have a word?”

Dylan turned to Flaven. “We’ll talk later.”

“All right, Dear One.” Flaven left.

Dylan turned back to the screen. “What is it, Andromeda?”

“Dylan, I’m showing a vehicle on a suborbital trajectory from Boyagen.”

“Boyagen?” Dylan remembered the xenophobic town on the other side of Seefra 1 from where he and the others were based, where Beka had discovered a father and the Methus diagrams to the Seefra system. “Is the ship armed?”

“Negative. It appears to be – Dylan, there’s a transmission. I’ll relay it to you.”

Andromeda was replaced by a careworn thirty-ish woman with long dark hair. 

She said, “Are you Hunt?”

“I’m Dylan Hunt.”

“I hear you can pull medical miracles. Is that true?”

“What seems to be the problem?”

“It’s my husband. He’s very sick. I don’t have anyone else to turn to. Please, help us.”

“Andromeda will give you a course to follow. We’ll meet you when you land.”

“Thank you, Captain Hunt, thank you so much.”


	6. Chapter 6

The woman’s name was Erin, and she was slightly overweight. Her husband’s name was Jonah. He was about her age, bald, and very thin. Dylan, Rhade, and Doyle met them at the landing field and escorted them to the lab in the back of Harper’s bar. Jonah was agitated and occasionally incoherent, but he begged to be restrained. Dylan agreed and had Trance restrain his hands and feet. 

While Trance busied herself at the exam table and Doyle stood guard, Dylan and Rhade questioned Erin.

Dylan said, “Start at the beginning. When did this happen?”

“He went looking for work a couple of weeks ago,” Erin said. “He didn’t come back.”

Rhade said, “Boyagen does have higher incidences of disappearances and other odd occurrences than the rest of the Seefra system combined.”

“Not like this,” Erin said. “It’s been worse than ever the last couple of months.”

Dylan asked, “Anything happen a couple of months ago?”

Erin nodded. “This old mansion in the outskirts, just south of town. It had been abandoned for as long as anyone can remember. Then a couple of months ago…things started happening. You started hearing rumors. People saw lights there, heard noises. There’s been talk of men with guns. And people found these.” She pulled a small pellet from a pocket in her gown. 

Rhade accepted the pellet from her and inspected it. “A lead bullet.” He sniffed it. “Chemical residue. Gunpowder. Dylan, this was fired by an ancient slug thrower. Probably a semi-automatic machine gun.”

“Seriously? Just when you think Seefra can’t surprise you…next thing we’ll see people with crossbows.” Dylan turned back to Erin. “You think this has anything to do with the disappearances?”

“Jonah was last seen down that way,” Erin said. “I asked around and a lot of disappeared men had gone that way to. But then Jonah appeared on my doorstep a couple of days ago. He hasn’t said much, but I think someone was--”

Alarms went off at the medical consoles. Trance raced over to them. “I do not believe…this has to be…no, this is impossible!”

Dylan prompted, “Trance?”

Trance glanced between her readouts and Jonah. “I don’t know how this is happening, Dylan, but his DNA is being rewritten as we watch.”

“What!?” Dylan came up behind Trance and looked at her monitors. He watched as schematics of the double helix changed before his eyes. 

“What the--” Dylan turned at a noise and looked behind him. “Trance. Trance!”

Trance turned and gasped: Jonah was straining against his bonds and mutating before their eyes. As his face became more bestial, with fangs growing out of his mouth, his skull enlarged, and ripples appeared on it.

Trance glanced between Johah and her consoles. “His brain is enlarging. It’s one-and-a-half times the size of a normal human brain and growing. I’ve never seen anything like this—and Dylan, there are traces of zero point--”

With a roar, Johan – or what had been Jonah – broke his bonds and got to his feet. He tossed the exam table to one side as if it was made of cardboard.

Dylan, Rhade, and Doyle drew their weapons. 

“Wait!” Erin said. “He’s a good man.” She came over to the thing that had been her husband.

Dylan warned, “Erin – get back--”

“No, I know my husband.” She turned to Jonah. “Jonah, please. I know you’re in there. Let them help you.”

Jonah seemed to calm. Then with a swipe of his arm, he sent Erin flying against a far wall. There was a loud SNAP! as she hit and then she fell still.

Dylan, Doyle, and Rhade didn’t hesitate: They opened fire on Jonah. He cringed. But then he rushed at them. Only Doyle was fast enough to get in his way. Doyle and Jonah wrestled, slamming against the wall. Then Jonah pushed them through it. By the time Dylan got to the hole, Jonah had run off. 

“Doyle--” Dylan said, “are you all right?”

“Yeah,” Doyle said, “all things considered.”

Dylan studied the edges of the hole. “You should be glad Harper likes his women tough; you just went through a carbon fiber starship hull.” He bent to look at Erin.

“Dead?” Doyle asked.

Dylan nodded. Then they heard screams from the streets.

“Go after him,” Dylan ordered, “but do not engage. Rhade and I will meet you there.”

Doyle nodded and went down the alley. 

“Rahde, with me.” They ran out the door and through the club. 

Dylan and Rhade came out the front of the Oasis to find Jonah in the center of a widening crows of panicked people. Harper, Beka, and Trance were taking cover behind barrels near the entrance, Harper and Beka with their own guns drawn. Some of the crowd also had weapons drawn, while others were trying to hide.

Dylan said, “Jonah! There’s no place to go. No one else has to die. Please, let us help you.”

Jonah roared and charged. Dylan, Rhade, and Doyle opened fire on him. He soaked up bullets and kept coming.

Dylan ordered, “Plasma burst!” as he tabbed the stud on his force lance. He hated to do it because it was harder to charge his lance in Seefra afterwards, but he had no choice. He fired the plasma burst, Doyle and Rhade also firing plasma from their pistols. Jonah staggered back and fell into food stand, which collapsed on top to him. (The stand’s owner had already hid behind some barrels and was unharmed.)

Dylan cautiously advanced on the stand, when it erupted. Dylan turned away and ducked flying debris. He turned back to see a glowing brain, four times the size of a man’s head, floating above the stands. Tentacles reached down from it.

“What the…” Dylan started. Then a tentacle lashed in his direction. Dylan opened fire on it; Doyle, Rhade, and some people in the crowd did the same. The brain that had been Jonah shuddered as it soaked up bullets. Then it began to spark and glow brighter.

Dylan shouted, “TAKE COVER!” He turned, ran, and threw himself to the ground, covering his head. He heard a loud BOOM which knocked out his hearing for a second. He rolled over and looked up. As his hearing recovered, he took in the ball of black smoke rising from where the brain had been floating.

“Sound off!” Dylan called. “Everyone ok?”

Doyle and Rhade came over to him.

Doyle said, “We’re ok.”

Beka Harper and Trance came over. Harper said, “What was…I mean… ” He trailed off.

“Trance,” Rhade rasped, “I need you to study the DNA on that thing. I need a comparison between it and…the Progenitor and the Alpha Matriarch.”

Beka’s eyebrows arched. “You want to see if that was…Rhade…”

“I hope I’m wrong, Beka.” Rhade was visibly shaken.

Dylan turned to Trance. “Trance. Do the check.”

“I’ll get right on it.”

Dylan turned to Rhade. “In the meantime, why don’t we work off some nervous energy by helping Mr. Harper fix the hole in his wall.”

Rhade nodded. That he didn’t argue filled Dylan with foreboding.


	7. Chapter 7

Dylan, Rhade, and Doyle had made a good start on the hole in Harper’s wall when Trance announced she had completed her genetic tests. Andromeda looked down from the screen as Beka joined them.

Trance said, “Three percent of the DNA was…unrecognizable. Even with Andromeda’s database, I couldn’t make sense of it. The rest…we’ll, there’s no easy way to say it.” She turned to Beka and added: “Half his DNA came from Drago Musevini, and half came from you.”

Beka’s eyes widened. “That was a Nietzschean? Rhade?”

Rhade had his back to the others. “I thought it was a myth, or a story your mothers and stepmothers used to threatened you. ‘Eat your vegetables or you’ll become one of Falco’s mutates.’”

“Falco?” Harper yelped. “As in Falco Musevini? Drago’s crazy little brother? That Falco?”

Rhade turned. “That Falco. And Harper, whatever you have to say about him, next to any Nietzscehean, you would be kind.

“Falco believed that Drago was fundamentally wrong headed – that trying to evolve the human body was a dead end. The only thing worth saving was the brain, according to him. And he thought that even expanding out into the universe, humans were breeding too fast. The population had to be reduced.

“So Falco came up with a two-stage plan. The first stage would sneak chemicals and nanotech into prescription medication so millions of people with susceptible genes would be mutated into monsters with enlarged, self-sustaining brains. The brains would be harvested and used to power machinery – computers, robots, communications networks, you name it. At the same time, he would breed a dozen girls – test tube babies – who’s instinctive drive would be not for reproduction but for combat. They would live to kill. When the girls reached puberty, they would fight to the death until one was left. She would be the….well, some versions of the story called her the Valkyrie; others call her the Genocide Angel. But in the second stage of the plan, she would lead an army of brain-driven machines to cull the human race. Some people would be used to make more brains; others would be kept around for menial labor. The rest would be slaughtered.”

Harper arched his eyebrows. “Wow, that’s…even the Drago Kasov wouldn’t do that.”

Rhade nodded. “Drago banished Falco from Ayn Rand station, then set about to create the Nietzschean race. But after he’d bred he first generation of Nietzscheans, Falco returned. He stole digital copies of his and the alpha…of Beka’s DNA. Drago gave chase; they disappeared for a month. Then Drago returned. He wouldn’t say what happened. But ever since, every Nietzschean male who achieves maturity--” He broke off, then turned to Beka. “Every Nietzschean male swears that when the Alpha Matriarch returns, we will help her and her huntsman defeat Falco and his allies.”

“Hunts…Man?” Beka said.

Dylan said, “That wasn’t just an oath, Rhade. It was a message to us. He wants our help to beat Falco.”

Beka said, “So Falco is here?”

“Or in a universe connected to us,” Andromeda said. “I’ve scanned the mansion near Boyagen. There are zero-point energy emissions coming from it.”

Doyle said, “So Falco found a universe where he can put his plans into effect, and maybe spread out into other universes.”

“This may sound strange coming from me,” Rhade said, “but if Falco is out there, he has to be stopped.”

“All right then,” Dylan said. “Who am I to refuse to help the alpha matriarch?”


	8. Chapter 8

“Caves,” Dylan grumbled as he, Rhade, and Trance crept through the tunnel near Boyagen. “Why does it always have to be in caves?”

Rhade smiled. “At least this one smells better than the last one.”

“Haven’t noticed. And they all look alike to me.”

“Maybe you should have your eyes checked.”

Dylan grunted.

Trance hushed them. “Quiet!” she hissed. “We’re getting close.”

Dylan drew his force lance and Rhade brought out his pistol. 

With Beka in her usual place in her ship’s pilot’s chair, Dylan, Beka, Rhade, Trance, and Doyle had flown the *Maru* to the far side of Seefra 1. It had been morning when they arrived; Beka had stayed under the radar as she’d guided the *Maru* to land near the entrance to an old mine near the mansion Jonah had escaped from. After the usual argument with Beka, Dylan had persuaded her and Doyle to wait at the *Maru* while he, Rhade, and Trance went down the tunnel.

…and it wasn’t so much that they were in a tunnel, Dylan reflected, but that it had happened so often. Almost every time they went somewhere, whether an asteroid or a planet – caves and tunnels. Even when he and Tyr had gone to rescue Rommie from the tunnel aliens, they had ended up in tunnels. 

Did someone out there like tunnels?

They rounded a corner and found themselves facing a metal door in the rock wall, with a keypad in the wall next to it. There were no guards and no sign of any cameras. 

Rhade looked left and right and sniffed the air. “No other security. Someone being lazy?”

Dylan mused, “Or overconfident. Or maybe just being cheap.” He tried the door. “Feels pretty solid.” He rapped it with his knuckles as quietly as he could and listened to the soft ‘bongs.’ “Carbo-titanium armor plating, and I’ll wager the walls are reinforced. It’ll take us a while to cut through it, and explosives would be too loud.”

Rhade said, “Not like we have other choices. Unless you can pick the lock or…”

Trance was at the keypad. She entered a sequence and the door unlocked.

Rhade gestured at her. “Or that.”

They went through the door and closed it behind them quietly. The corridor walls had been finished with plain white plaster. 

Dylan noted the overhead lighting fixtures. “Odd. Fluorescent lighting.” 

“I thought everything was tinted funny,” Rhade said. “What’s the big deal?”

“It’s an ancient technique, Rhade – pre-Commonwealth Earth.”

“On Seefra, Dylan? You’re surprised?”

“Nnn.”

Down a short corridor and they bunched up before another passage. Dylan peaked around then turned back to the others. “One guard,” he said, “and it looks like he has a machine gun.”

Rhade frowned. “A slug thrower? Are you serious?”

“Still think it’s not a big deal, Rhade?”

“You’ve got a point there, Dylan. But what now?”

Trance smiled and adjusted her top. “Well, I guess it’s my turn.”

She strolled around the corner. “Excuse me,” she said to the guard with a shy smile, “but I’m lost and I--”

The man jumped, and after initial surprise brought his machine gun – which, Dylan noted (as he and Rhade peaked around the corner) looked to be in very good condition for an ancient weapon – to bear on Trance. “Freeze! How did you get in here?”

“I walked.”

The man began to unhook his radio from his belt. “I’ll have to--”

Trance took a half step forward and breathed on the man; gold mist came out of her mouth. The guard flinched and slumped; Trance caught him and lowered him to the floor, propping him against the wall. She motioned for Dylan and Rhade to join her.

Rhade grimaced at the guard. “It’s that easy? She could have done that all along? Why do you have me along?”

“You need the exercise,” Dylan quipped. 

“Oh, yeah?” Rhade shot back. “And how much jogging have you done when you’ve been up there on the *Andormeda?* You have it all to yourself most of the time, and you look like you’ve put on--”

Trance was at the keypad. “Shh! This is important.” She entered the code and the door unlocked. They found themselves in a medical lab. They found exam tables equipped with straps. Shelves held test tubes containing fluid samples. 

Dylan grimaced. “We know what happened to Jonah, now.”

Trance was hurrying to the next door at the far end of the room. “This way.” 

The next room had consoles on either side and there was a metal arch at the far end. And in the middle of the arch, a glowing blue tesseract flickered and twisted around itself.

Rhade nodded. “What do you think, Dylan? Our way home?”

Dylan nodded. “After we shut the rest of this down.”

Rhade winced. “Why was I waiting for you to--”

Voices sounded from the other room. Dylan and Rhade exchanged glances, pushed the door shut, and blocked it with a table.

Rhade looked around. “No other exits.”

“Trance,” Dylan said, “can you teleport us out of here?”

“Not this close to the portal, Dylan.”

“Then the portal is what we’ll use. Trance?”

“On it.” Trance moved to a console. She worked the controls and the tesseract glowed brighter and spun faster.

“Are you serious?” Rhade said. “We don’t know what’s on the other side of that.”

“No,” Dylan said, “but we know what’s here.”

Someone started pounding on the door.

Dylan gestured at the portal. “Coming?”

“Out of the frying pan…” Rhade drew his pistol and jumped through the portal. Trance went next. Dylan waited, turned and ran into it…

…and found himself on a sidewalk next to parked ground cars in what looked like a major city. It was a sunny day, late morning or early afternoon. 

Dylan steadied himself against a light post.

Trance smiled. “You’ll be fine soon.” 

Rhade looked around. “No sign of a portal.”

“The other end was too heavily guarded,” Trance said. “I was able to redirect us here.”

“Great,” Rhade said. “Where’s here?”

As Dylan felt better, he read the license plate on a ground car. “Japanese. We’re in Japan, or on a Japanese colony?”

“Japan,” Trance said. “Tokyo to be precise. And the year is…” She stuck her finger in her mouth and then held her finger up as if she was testing the wind. “…2050 by the old Earth calendar--”

They heard a loud thud and crouched behind a ground car. Down the street, a large armored blue robot maybe the size of one of Andromeda’s Tweedles walked down the street, flanked by soldiers. Gunfire sounded in the distance.

Dylan said, “I don’t remember those from ancient Earth history.”

“We’ve jumped to another universe,” Trance said. “This isn’t our universe, so not our history.”

Rhade said, “Figured that. So how do we get home?”

“Well…” Trance said, “the Route of Ages is kind of like the slipstream – some places are easier to get to than others. So from Seefra, it’s very hard – not impossible but just very hard – to get back to our universe in our time. But this universe is relatively easy.”

Dylan saw where she was going. “And if a route is easy to use and others use it, it’s easier to use?”

“Right,” Trance said. “So I can make a portal to get us home, but I’m not strong enough to do it on my own. I’ll need a huge infusion of zero point energy.”

As they stood, Rhade said, “Fine. Where do we get it?”

“Follow me,” Trance said. They went down the street and looked round the corner. They saw a sports car had been stopped at a road block, and a young, dark-haired woman with—apparently—ample breasts wearing a long blue coat was arguing with some soldiers.

Trance said, “Follow my lead.” She headed for the road block.

8

8

The young woman was named Sei. After Dylan and Rhade incapacitated the soldiers, Trance – who knew Sei in spite of never having met her – persuaded her to give them a lift towards an imposing forked skyscraper. 

Sei followed Trance’s directions and they ended up pulling up near an unguarded service entrance.

When they got out, Trance said to Sei, “Don’t worry—you will see him again. Your dance is not done.”

Sei nodded slowly. “Thank you Trance.”

Trance closed the door and the car roared away.

Rhade said, “Who’s her dance partner?”

Trance shrugged. “Dunno.” She headed for the door’s keypad.

Dylan said, “You expected otherwise?”

“I know,” Rhade said, then nodded to some distant booms that were getting louder. “I’m more worried about that. That doesn’t sound like small arms.”

“I know,” Dylan said. “We’ve obviously arrived in the middle of something, and as much as I want to know what a mob princess had to do with it, we’re better off if we get home and regroup.”

“Wait,” Rhade said, “how did you know she’s a mob princess?”

“Wasn’t it obvious?”

“Not to me!”

Trance called from the door: “It’s open. Come on!”

As they climbed the service stairwell, alarms sounded and explosions echoed through the structure. But no one stumbled on them.

At one landing, Trance said, “We’re almost there.”

The building shook with a loud THOOM. The light flickered, and plaster fell from the walls.

Rhade steadied himself. “Before or after the building falls on us?”

Trance pointed at the door on the next landing. “Through there!”

The door lead to a short service corridor with a door at the far end. They’d go to it when a machine gun rattled on the other side. They pressed themselves against a wall in time to hear and feel a loud crash. More voices. Then a deep feminine voice shouted, “You’re about to enter a whole new world. Welcome to hell!” Gunfire. Then silence.

Trance looked agitated. “It’s now or never!”

Dylan nodded. Rhade opened the door and lead the way into the room, where they found a giant brain, were reunited with a wounded Sei…

…and met a girl named Jo.

8

8

“Amy!” the Conductor called. “Look at this!”

In the Conductor’s lair, Amy turned away from her laptop to the effeminate space-suited hacker’s TV just in time to see light pouring out of RAPT headquarters. Then a fire ball burst out of it. The upper half of the building collapsed as the fireball rose into the sky.

The Conductor was aghast. “Oh, Amy, Amy…I’m sorry….”

Amy turned back to her laptop and began scrolling through screens. She stopped on one.

“…Amy, if your friends were in there, there’s no way…Amy?”

Amy pointed at the chart on her screen. “Look at this.”

The Conductor looked over Amy’s shoulder. “A spike in gravity waves?”

Amy nodded. “Either someone has picked this exact moment to play a very bad joke, or a wormhole opened in the middle of RAPT headquarters an instant before it blew up. And I’m in no mood for jokes.”


	9. Chapter 9

Dressed in his chef’s whites, Kyohei paused in the entrance of Love and Happy’s class room/kitchen. Even though he had studied here for a year, all of that was behind the emotional wall of RAPT HQ’s destruction and his interrogation by the cops. The meeting with the Patriarch still stuck in his mind. The room that should have been familiar to him seemed a strange place, as if he was seeing it for the first time. 

Elise came over to him and hugged him. “Kyohei! It’s good to see you.” She disengaged. “How do you feel?”

Kyo shrugged. “Ok I guess.”

“I know,” Elise said sympathetically, “after all those bitches have put you through, it’s a wonder you have not gone mad. Well, the teacher said we can have open practice today, so we can work on whatever we want. Want to work with me?”

Kyo looked into Elise’s eyes. On the one hand, he didn’t blame Sei and the girls for what had happened. And he knew that they wouldn’t have put him in harm’s way if they could have helped it.

Then again, he’d come close to being killed more times than he could count since he’d met them.

Still…

Shiho and Hayao sidled over to them. Shiho said, “Elise? We’d like to have a word with Kyohei. Team business.”

“Of course.” Elise went back to her work space. 

Shiho’s eyes lingered on Elise, then she turned back to Kyo. “Kyo. How you doing?”

“Fine, I guess,” Kyo said. “And thanks. It was getting a little…awkward.”

“No problem,” Shiho said, pitching her voice for Kyo and Hayao alone. “Sei and company aren’t exactly popular at the moment, and Elise would be only too happy to lead the lynch mob.”

“Yeah?” Kyohei said cautiously. “What about you guys?”

Hayao started, “Kyo--”

“I have to know, Hayao. I have to know I can trust you.”

Hayao and Shiho exchanged glances. Then Shiho turned back to Kyohei and said, “They saved both our lives more than once. And you stayed with them until the end. That’s good enough for me.” 

Hayao nodded in agreement. “So, Kyo, what’s the word?”

Kyo shrugged. “I tried all their phone numbers and they’re all disconnected. The web site on the flyer is down. I was thinking of swinging by Leo’s shop later.”

Hayao shook his head. “I went by there on the way in this morning. Whole area’s cordoned off and the cops are loaded for bear. Best to stay away.”

“Yeah,” Kyo said. “And it’s a given the cops will be watching me. Hayao, you find out anything about that Patriarch character?”

Hayaho shook his head again. “Popped out of nowhere a few years ago, about the same time Glenford was elected governor of New York. Other than some out there stuff on conspiracy theory web sites, nothing.”

“What do you want to do, Kyo?” Shiho asked. “Are you sure there’s no other way to get in touch with them?”

Kyo thought it over. “Elise said Miss Hongo is giving us open practice, Shiho?”

“Yes, Kyo.”

“Ok,” Kyo said. “There’s one thing I can try – one longshot’s longshot that could get Amy’s attention. It may not work and it may be a bad idea, but at least I’ll be able to say I tried. You guys in?”

Shiho affirmed, “Always! What do you need, Kyo?”

“Keep Elise busy, Shiho. I need her out of my hair.”

“Done! I’ll work with her.” Shiho turned and headed over to Elise. Kyo and Hayao could just hear the friendly tones in their team leader’s voice.

Hayao sidled closer to Kyo. “Ok, Bro. What’s the plan?”

“The plan, Hayao, is to bake some cookies.”

8

8

Kyo couldn’t remember when he’d thrown himself into baking a batch of cookies. It had been a labor of love before, but now it seemed like a mission, as if the fate of the world depended on it. And he oversaw every step of their creation with laser-focused single-minded determination. There was nothing more important in the world than those cookies.

It was almost lunch time by the time they were done. Kyo put the cookies in a plastic container, labeled it, and wrote “Amy” on the label. 

He managed to avoid Elise and Miss Hongo as the class broke for lunch and he changed. He huddled with Shiho and Hayao by the back stairs. 

Hayao said, “What now?”

“Cover for me,” Kyo answered. “And before anyone asks where I’m going, the less you know, the better.”

His classmates exchanged glances. Then Shiho said, “Ok, Kyo.” She gave him a hug. “If you find the girls, give them my regards.” She disengaged. “Good luck.”

Kyo nodded, turned, and headed down the stairs.

8

8

“Inform the Patriarch that Tachibana has been sighted leaving Love and Happy. Maintaining surveillance.”

8

8

Kyo kept looking over his shoulder on the way to the cybermarket. He didn’t think he’d been followed…but Jo and Meg had snuck up on him often enough while he’d been cooking he knew not to make too much of that.

He found a bench in full view of a security camera and sat and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

After more than an hour, he had started to wonder if this had been a bad idea when his phone chimed. He read a single text message:

‘Follow the white rabbit. Do NOT let her eat MY cookies.’

Kyo chuckled. ‘Amy,’ he thought…and wherever Amy went, there had to be Sei, or at least news of Sei…

…but he was concerned about Jo and Meg, too, of course…

…but what did she mean?

“Excuse me, but those cookies look delicious. Are they for me?”

The speaker was a beautiful woman wearing a white wig and a low cut black leather dress. He was about to answer when he saw the tattoo on the curve of one breast: a white rabbit.

Kyo smiled. “No, I’m sorry. I’m waiting for someone.”

“Oh? Too bad. Well, hope your friend likes her cookies.”

“She will.”

The woman turned and sauntered away. Kyo waited a few seconds, got up, and followed her, trying to keep sight of her while not getting too close. She headed down an alley.

8

8

“Patriarch, he’s headed down the alley to the east.”

“Have squad seven move in from the other side. We have them!”

8

8

Kyo followed white rabbit down a twisting maze of alleys. But around the last turn, she had disappeared, and a heavyset blonde man with a beard was waiting there.

He smiled. “Hello, Kyo. My name is Peter. We don’t have a lot of time. I can take you to Meg and Amy. Or I can get you back to the cooking school without anyone any the wiser. Meg told me to give you the choice. What do you say?”

“I didn’t come this far to turn back, Peter. Take me to them.”

“In that case….”

A small pistol appeared in Peter’s hand. Before Kyo had absorbed it, something thumped his chest. He looked down and saw a small dart sticking out of his shirt.

Peter’s smile never wavered. “Sorry. It’s for your own protection.”

8

8

The Patriarch and his men met up with the other squad in the alley where Kyo had last been seen. But there was no sign of the young chef.

The Patriarch didn’t hide his annoyance. “Fan out. Find him!”

Men scattered while their leader stewed.


	10. Chapter 10

Leo peaked into the small spare bedroom of the safe house at the sleeping form of Kyohei Tachibana, lying on the cot. “How long is he going to be out?”

Meg was at his elbow. “Peter says another hour.”

“Ok.” Leo quietly closed the door. “Are you sure about his?” he said as he led Meg down the hall into the kitchen. “If the cops find out--”  
“I’ve been back and forth about this a hundred times,” Meg said as she sat on a kitchen chair. “He’s toughed it out with us for a year and come through for us when most people would crap their pants and run away…and most times, he just didn’t run. We owe him something, Leo. Don’t worry. Peter and I have worked something out.”

“As long as you’re sure about this.”

“I’m not, but it’s too late now.” She tapped a chair next to her. “Meanwhile, park it. There’s something we have to talk about.”

Leo sat. “What about?”

“Did I ever tell you why I came to Japan?” Meg asked.

“No,” Leo said. “I assumed you wanted to see the world or something like that.”

“That’s part of it, but I’m also looking for my dad.”

“Your dad’s from Japan?” Leo yelped.

“I know,” Meg said. “I don’t look it or sound it, but I’m actually half Japanese.”

“What happened?”

“My mom was a stripper. She met this guy who came over on a job. One thing led to another and they were doing the horizontal bob. Next thing you know she’s got a bun in the oven—me. When he found out, he split. Never came back.”

“I’m sorry to hear it. But it looks like your mom did right by you.”

“Maybe she did. I don’t know. The city child’s services took me away from her when I was a year old. Then she was killed in a hit and run on her way to family court. I never knew her. I’ve been in and out of the system ever since. Last time I was…out…I met Jo.”

“I…I don’t have words Meg. Any leads on that deadbeat dad of yours?”

“One. I tracked down one of Mom’s old friends. She said my dad was some kind of mechanical-techno genius brought into town by one of the syndicates. Word was he usually works for Bailan, and that someone in Bailan was always looking for freelance shooters. So Jo was a godsend – if she was as good as she seemed to be, Bailan might get interested in her. And it worked.”

Leo looked away for a second. Then he said quietly, “What was your mom’s name?”

“Kate. Kate Gillespie. And in answer to your next question, Peter used one of those scanner thingies to check our DNA. It matches.” Meg smiled. “Hi, Dad.” 

“You’re…I mean…you…Kate…” Leo clambered out of his chair, beside himself. “I didn’t…I mean….I don’t…I was a--”

“Stop right there.” Meg got out of her chair and got in Leo’s face. “I don’t want to hear it. I’ve gone over this in my mind a million times and whatever…explanations you have don’t matter. You’ve done all right by me and Jo, Leo. You’ve been a good friend. You’re just crap as a father. You weren’t one before and I don’t expect you to be one now. But if this is it, our last stand, I wanted you to know.”

Leo looked down at the floor. Then his eyes finally met Meg’s. “What do you want me say, Meg?”

“Just what you said to me when I was growing up in Brooklyn, Leo: Nothing.” She turned and left the room.

8

8

Kyohei woke up and looked around the small, sparse room. Amy was sitting against the wall with her nose in her laptop.

Takane was by the door. She saw Kyohei stir. “Well, look who’s returned to the land of the living,” she drawled.

Amy glanced up from her laptop as Kyo sat up. The next thing Kyo knew, Amy had clamped onto him in a hug. “KYOHEI! You’re back! And my cookies were delicious, by the way. Are you going to bake more? Good to see you by the way.”

“Good to see you…” He looked up as Meg came in the room. 

Amy got out of the way. Kyo stood up and Meg hugged him.

Meg said, “Hey, Kyo. Brave of you to come here. How you feeling?”

“Woozy but otherwise ok.”

“Good. C’mon.”

Kyo and the others followed Meg down the hall. He didn’t hide his shock when he saw she’d led him into the kitchen. “What…Meg!? All this and you expect me to cook for you? That’s not why I did this! I wanted to find out what had happened to you guys.”

“Are you sure, Kyo?”

“Of course, Meg.”

“That’s not what I mean, Kyo. You can walk away from this scot free. And the less you know the better; even this much association with us could torpedo your chances of getting into France. They really don’t like it anyone has a whiff of a criminal record. Do you want to take that chance?”

Kyo looked away for a second. Then his eyes found Meg’s. “I have to know, Meg. You of all people should appreciate that.”

“Then here’s the deal: You whip up something for us, and while you’re working, Amy and I will fill you in. Deal?”

“Deal.”

As Kyo worked in the kitchen, he followed what Meg and Amy told him about Bailan, Zero, being kidnapped by Maria, everything…

…until they mentioned something that made him wonder if they were lying to him.

“What!?” Kyo yelped as he turned away from the microwave. “Another universe? And Jo’s really some kind of alien?” 

“No,” Amy said, “her DNA was designed in another universe and brought here. But otherwise, she’s as human as you are…if you could hear a heartbeat from ten feet away.”

Kyo wasn’t buying it. He rounded on Meg. “Do you expect me to believe that? C’mon, Meg--”

Amy said, “I’m not lying, Kyo.”

“We’ve never lied to you,” Meg said, “and I swear we are not lying now. Not now. Not when it comes to Sei.”

“I’m just telling you what Peter told us and what I’ve found,” Amy went on. She spun her laptop around so he could see the screen. “It all lines up. I’ve double checked and triple checked it. These are definitely their servers; it’s not a smoke screen. I still don’t know where Zero came from, but they got in bed with someone from another universe, and that may be where Jo and Sei have gone.”

“And if you don’t believe that,” Meg said, “believe this: RAPT, or what’s left of it, has APBs out for Jo and Sei. Last I knew they don’t waste manpower hunting for dead people. So if you take anything away from this, let it be that they got out alive and we don’t know where they are.”

Kyo shrugged. “Well…ok, Meg. I’m sorry.” He chuckled. “You guys get into such screwy stuff, why--”

“Hello?” A girl about Meg’s height came in. She had huge breasts, purple eyes, and her head was covered with white stubble. She pulled along an IV stand. She came over to Kyo and sniffed. “I thought I smelled someone new. He smells like cake. And his heart rate just doubled. You should learn to take it easy, pal.”

Meg smiled. “Kyo, this is Maria. Maria, Kyo. She was burned to a crisp a couple of days ago, Kyo, and now look at her.”

Maria managed a cordial smiled…which conveyed the impression she wanted to cordially rip Kyo’s skin off just to pass the time. “So you’re Kyohei? Well, you are cute. I’ll grant you that. Maybe that’s why Meg talks about you in her sleep.”

“What!?” Kyo looked at Meg.

Meg smiled awkwardly. “I’m dreaming about food, Kyo.”

“Oh…ok.”

Maria looked around. “Where’s Jo?”

Meg said, “Jo’s not here, Maria.”

“You’re wrong, Meg. She’s close. I can feel her presence.”

Meg’s eyes traveled to the others, then back to Maria. “Ok, Maria, let’s get you back to bed, and I’ll have Kyohei make you some--”

“Don’t patronize me, Meg!” Maria’s tattoo blazed to life on her right cheek and down her right arm. “Jo’s close. So close I can feel it. She’s upset—scared, confused, and angry. You can’t keep me from her…uh…ah…” Maria’s eye widened and she started to cry in pain as her body started to glow…

…and then…


	11. Chapter 11

Sei said, “So, Jo, what do you make of our hosts?” She was sitting up in her bed in one of the *Andromeda’s* sickbay wards. An IV was stuck in her arm and plugged into a wall panel. Jo was sitting by her on a stool; they were the only ones in the huge room. 

“They’ve played straight with us so far,” Jo said. “They patched you up. I’m inclined to give Dylan and his crew the benefit of the doubt.”

“So, no doubts about their story?”

“Are you asking if they could fake it? Sure. Just hollow out a mountain range and spend a few quadrillion Yen on special effects. It’s be easier to take us to a starship in another--” Jo broke off and sharply inhaled. “Oh, no, not that clown again.”

The hatch slid open. Seamus Harper sauntered in. “Ladies? And how is our loveliest new patient doing?”

Sei smiled, absorbing the flattery but not letting it go to her head. “Quite well, Mr. Harper. Trance says I should be on my feet by the end of the day. I must say I am impressed by your medical technology.”

“Which I have had a hand in maintaining. So you have me to thank for your recovery. And please, call me Seamus.”

“Of course, Seamus. And I commend you for keeping the *Andromeda* -- what I’ve seen of it—in such fine condition. A credit to your skill.”

“Why thank you, Sei.”

Jo took a half step forward. “She has to rest.”

“Sure,” Harper said. “And if either of you need anything—and I mean absolutely anything—feel free to call me.” He sauntered past them and dove into a conduit hatch.

Jo rolled her eyes. “How come a self-professed genius doesn’t seem to comprehend ‘you’re not my type’?”

Sei smiled slightly. “He’s probably hoping you play for both teams. And you can’t fault him for being eternally optimistic.”

“That’ll be the day.”

“I don’t know. You did seem to flirt a little with Kyohei from time to time.”

“That was just banter. And speaking of Kyo, when we get home--”

Sei looked away from Jo, up at the ceiling. “We will have to find ourselves a new chef.”

“Are you serious?”

“Very. By the way, how did you know Harper was outside the door just now?”

“I smelled his cologne. Don’t change the subject.”

“What cologne? I didn’t smell any--”

The lights suddenly dimmed.

Sei looked around as if she couldn’t see anything. “Jo!”

“I’m here, Sei. They just turned the lights down.”

“Down? I can’t see a thing!”

“Really? Are you feeling all--”

“Jo?” Beka’s voice interrupted from outside the door. “Come here! Now!”

“What now?” Jo headed for the hatch.

Sei called, “Jo? Where are you going?”

“I’ll be right back after I see what Beka wants.”

“Beka? What about her?”

“Didn’t you hear her just now?”

“No, I--” But the hatch closed behind Jo and she couldn’t hear what Sei said.

“Jo!” Beka’s voice echoed. “Come here now!”

“Coming!” Jo shouted. “What, are you deaf?”

Beka didn’t stop shouting. The lighting was dim in all the corridors, but Jo could still see where she was going as she slid down ladder wells and navigated corridors in the direction of Beka’s voice. Beka’s cologne also got stronger, so Jo figured she was going the right way and kept going…

…until she stopped at a corridor. Maria was nearby. She could feel it “Maria?”

Beka’s voice: “JO!”

“All right!” Whatever was up with Maria, that could wait. Jo continued on her way.

Jo finally came down a ladder within ten yards of Beka. Beka was standing with Dylan and Rhade near a short corridor.

“Jo!”

“I’m here!” Jo shouted as she came over to Beka. “Now what’s up?”

Rhade looked at her, but Beka and Dylan turned towards here without looking at her. Beka said, “Ah, good, you’re here.”

“Yeah, I’m here! There a reason you can’t look me in the eye?”

Rhade said calmly, “They’re not looking at you because they can’t see you. The light is too low for their eyes. Andromeda, raise lighting to normal level.”

The lights came up. Beka turned to jo and smiled. “Ah, there you are. I was getting horse yelling for you.”

Rhade went on: “Even a human could not have heard her from as far away as you were. Your hearing is more sensitive. And you also followed Beka’s scent--”

“What scent? You mean her cologne?”

Beka frowned. “I’m not wearing cologne.”

“Yes you are!” Jo snapped. “You all are. Everyone has their own cologne. I tried to tell Meg that once and she looked at me like I was crazy.”

Rhade said, “That’s not cologne. That’s them. Their body scent.”

“You saying I have a nose like a bloodhound?”

“Yes, for the same reason I do: You’re a Nietzschean.”

“Excuse me?”

Dylan went to the end of the short corridor and tabbed a keypad. A hatch opened and a sarcophagus rolled out. Dylan opened it and stepped back.

Jo peered at the skeleton in the coffin. “I guess you guys take the skeletons in the closet thing literally?”

Beka said, “That’s Drago Musevini. Two thousand years ago, in our history, he had the crazy idea to upgrade the human race. He created Nietzscheans. He started with his DNA. He made himself the genetic Adam….and he needed an Eve. He literally scoured time and space until he came here. To Seefra. To me. He made a digital copy of my DNA and took it back in time to make Rhade’s ancestors.”

Jo smirked at Rhade. “So she’s your great-something-grandma? I can see the resemblance.”

Rhade squirmed a little. “Yes, well, Drago had a jealous brother, Falco. He stole the DNA and used it to pursue his radical theories. One of them involved breeding female ‘genocide angels’ to lead a war to conquer the world he’d settled on…”

“Wha…” Jo started.

“…We’ve compared your DNA to Beka’s and Drago’s,” Rhade went on. “It’s a match.”

Beka said, “In other words, Jo, genetically at least, that pile of bones there is your father, and I am your mother.”

“Wh-what?” Jo stammered. “Now, wait a minute--”

Rhade stepped forward. “That’s why you can see and hear and smell better than anyone you know. You never knew why. That’s why you’re so good in a fight…and so quick to anger.”

Beka soothed, “I know it’s a lot, Jo, but everyone on this ship…with the possible exception of Harper…has had their lives turned upside-down at least once. We can help you get through this.”

“I…I don’t…” Seemingly confused, Jo wandered closer to Rhade. But once she was close enough, she slammed a fist into his stomach. As the big Nietzscehan staggered, Jo snatched his gauss pistol out of its holster and backed up, training it on the others. Dylan reached for his force lance and Rahde’s hand went towards the backup behind his back, but Beka gestured to them to ease down. Dylan moved his hand from his lance. Rhade lowered his hands to his side as he straightened.

Jo’s tattoo started glowing. “All right! Time you guys gave me some straight answers. For starters: what do you have to do with Maria?”

Beka frowned. “Who?”

“Don’t lie to me, Beka. I know she’s here. I can feel it.”

“I’m not lying to you, Jo. You are the last person I would ever lie to. You’re blood of my blood--”

“SHUT UP!” Jo shouted. “I’m sick of being lied to. Sick of not knowing which end is up, being twisted and turned until I have no idea where I’m going. I hate this! I—I—ahhh….” Jo started screaming as her body started to glow. Rhade darted in and grabbed the  
gun, then skidded back as Jo howled in pain. Her scream reached a crescendo and they had shield their eyes and look away as her body blazed. 

The glow faded, but not Jo’s shouting. “What…what…what have you done to me!?”

The turned back to see fully developed bone blades had burst out of her forearms. Her arms were a bloody mess.

Beka crept forward, and did her best to sound soothing: “Jo, it’ll be ok. Weird stuff like this happens all the time with us. We’ll help you. We’ll get through this. I promise.”

“Meg.” Jo wobbled on her feet, a dreamy look on her face. “I want to go home. I want Meg. Mehhh…” She collapsed. Beka caught her.

Dylan said, “Andromeda, prep med deck. Medical emergency.”

8

8

Jo came to and realized she was in *Andromeda’s* medical bay. And that she was restrained. “What…?”

Rhade was standing next to the bed. “She’s awake.”

Dylan, Trance, Beka and Sei came into Jo’s field of vision. Jo saw Sei was wearing a new blue dress with white trim and a plunging neckline. Jo said, “New duds?”

“Doyle made them for me,” Sei said. “The old outfit looked pretty ratty….and I had been thinking of trying a new look anyway.”

“Kyo’ll like it.” She looked at Dylan. “There’s a reason I’m tied down?”

“Precaution,” Dylan said. “You’re actually stronger than you were when you got here. Given your temper I thought it wise not to take any chances. Sei has vouched for you, and I and my crew will do everything to help you…but you have to work with us, Jo. No more outbursts like earlier. Clear?”

Jo nodded. Dylan glanced at Trance, and Trance undid the restraints. 

Jo sat up on the edge of the bed. She held up her arms and inspected her bone blades. “So, would anyone care to explain what happened to me?”

Trance said, “Well, physiologically, you are now at Nietzscehan standard, and that includes fully developed bone blades. But obviously, Nietzscehan growth usually doesn’t involve energy bursts. I have no idea where it came from or how it made your body develop; the laws of physics are twitchy around here, and your universe probably has different rules, too. But I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that this Maria you mentioned went through the same thing. All I can say for sure is there were no ill effect and your condition is stable.”

“Jeez,” Jo groused. “You weren’t kidding when you said my life would be turned upside-down, Dylan. Only thing is, I didn’t know who I was. I blanked out my whole life from before I met Meg. And when I learned the truth, and started to think I know who I am, the rug gets pulled out from under me again. So who am I?”

Beka sat next to Jo. “I’ll tell you who you are. You’re my kid. You’re a Valentine. And we Valentines take whatever’s thrown at us and send it back with interest. You’re blood of my blood, and you will get through this—WE will get through this, together.” She extended a hand. “Deal?”

Jo took Beka’s hand. “Deal…but I’m not calling you ‘Mom.’”

“‘Beka’ will be fine.”

Dylan didn’t stop laughing for twenty minutes.


	12. Chapter 12

…Kyo held up his hand to shield his eyes from the light blazing out of Maria’s body while she screamed. Then both the light and the screaming subsided. 

Kyo blinked at Maria. The girl was staring aghast at her forearms. Three bony spikes had erupted through the skin of each forearm. “What…what….”

Peter charged into the room. “What--” He saw Maria. “What happened?”

Me said, “She lit up like a Christmas tree and then, well, now she’s got spikes.”

Maria turned to Peter with a pleading look on her face, a scared little girl breaking through the killer’s façade. “What happened?”

Peter took her hands in his. “I’m not sure. Let’s get you back to bed.”

“Ok.”

8

8

“….could have knocked me over with a feather,” Leo said between mouthfuls. “I mean, ok, yeah, now that I think about it, Meg does look a bit like Kate, but never in a million years did I imagine Meg was mine!” He and Kyo were sitting at the kitchen table, Leo wolfing down a plate of food while Kyo rested his chin on one hand.

Leo noticed how Kyo didn’t react. “You awake, Kyo? I mean, you’re taking that awfully well.”

“What, you mean, Meg begin your kid, Leo? No, I didn’t see that coming, but it is the least shocking thing to happen lately.”

“Point taken.”

Meg came in. “Kyo? Could you come with me, please?”

Kyo followed Meg to Maria’s room. Maria was sleeping on her bed.

Peter explained quietly, “She’s stable at the moment. I don’t know where the energy burst you described came from, but it helped complete her maturation into a full Nietzschean; her bioluminescent markings are the only difference between her and my people. She’ll be all right if nothing like it happens again. I need some more medicine, though. I can make do with over-the-counter medication, but someone has to make the purchase, preferably someone who’s face isn’t on an APB.”

Meg said, “It’s asking a lot, Kyo, and putting you in danger. But it would help us a lot.”

“Of course I’ll help, Meg. What do you want me to do?”

8

8

They parked around the corner from a 24 hour pharmacy. Meg waited by the van under a street light while Kyo went in with the money Leo had given him.

Kyo came out and met Meg under the street light. She said, “Any problems?”

“No.” He handed her the bag. “What now?”

“Well--” Meg looked past Kyo’s shoulder. “What’s that?”

Kyo turned. He didn’t see anything. “What’s what?” Then he felt something press against his arm and the sting of a needle.

He turned back to Meg and saw her handling a pistol-like syringe. He said, “What did you do?” He started to feel woozy.

Meg caught him and lowered him to the ground. “I’m sorry, Kyo, but it has to be this way. I can’t let you throw your life away for us.” She propped him against the street light. “Just tell them the truth. What’s left in your blood will make them think you were drugged out the whole time. They should give you a pass and let you go to France.”

“No…Meg…I….”

“I know, you’re a good friend and you’re loyal. And it means a lot to me you want to help us. But you’re going to ruin your own life if you do. I’m not going to allow that, Kyo, not after everything you worked so hard for. And Sei and Jo would back me up on this. Go to France. Be the best damned patissier on the planet. And save some hot sauce just in case. You….you never know when some crazy angels will darken your door.” She hugged him and whispered in his ear, “Vaya con Dios my friend.”

A tear slid down Kyo’s cheek. “Goo…goodbye….Meg. Tell Sei…Sehhh….”

“I will.”

Kyo held his eyes open long enough to watch Meg get back in the van and watch the van pull away. Then everything went black.


	13. Chapter 13

“What exactly am I looking at?” Sei asked. She had joined Dylan, Harper and Andromeda’s hologram on the starship’s command deck. They were facing one of the big screens, which was filled with streams of numbers and symbols. 

Rommie said, “I don’t know where this is coming from, but based on the IPv4 and IPv6 prefixes I’ve identified, combined with the traffic I’ve been able to decode, it appears to be the internet stream from your world, Sei.”

Harper chimed in, “It probably happened when Jo popped her blades, some kind of connection back to your world.”

“So, I can communicate with people back home, Harper?”

“That’s how it looks, Sei.”

Dylan said, “We seem to have a common enemy. If we can set up communication through this link…”

8

8

“…we should be able to work with whoever is on the other side,” Amy explained. “From what Peter’s told me, they should be on our side.”

Meg looked over Amy’s shoulder at the laptop screen. “If they’re more trustworthy than Peter I’ll go for it. But are you sure about this, Amy?”

“Meg, there’s a node in the network that’s not on any DNS, and it wasn’t there before Maria got her new spikes. I think I can handle this.”

“If it leads us back to Jo, Amy, then I’m all for it.”


	14. Chapter 14

Kyo turns around at the stove and smiles as Sei comes into the trailer’s kitchen. 

Sei puts her hand on his shoulder and starts shaking him gently. ‘Kyo?’ she says…although her voice sounds different and she has a French accent. ‘Kyo? Wake up. Wake--’

“—up,” Elise said, gently shaking Kyo’s shoulder. 

Kyo woke up and reoriented himself: He was sitting in the passenger seat of Elise’s car. She had driven him from their townhouse in Paris and parked in front of the restaurant, in a refurbished castle on the outskirts of town. “That’s it?” he asked. 

“Yes,” Elise said as she unfastened her safety belt. “Come on. Poppa is waiting to show you around and introduce you to everyone.”

8

8

Kyo came to in a hospital room. There was an IV sticking out of his arm.

His mother was right by the bed. “Kyo?”

“Hey Mom,” me said weakly. “What happened?”

“Kyohei…what were you thinking? Your ‘classmates’ told Miss Hongo what you did, how you went after those girls….” 

‘With a little prompting from the Patriarch, I bed,’ Kyo added to himself.

“…your father and I were worried sick! And then Agent Stark called us to say you had found by the side of the road unconscious with your wallet empty.”

“Huh.” Kyo didn’t remember Meg going for his wallet, so either she’d made it look like a mugging without him being aware of it, or someone else had taken his money while he’d been unconscious. 

Elise came and sat on the edge of the bed, smiling down at him. “Hey, how do you feel?”

“Groggy….headache.”

“Well,” Elsie said, “you are safe now--”

Kyo heard commotion and voices from outside the room. Then the Patriarch and one of his goons was at the foot of the bed. Another man—Kyo guessed it was a doctor—hovered nearby.

Kyo smiled. “Hey, Patriarch. Had a busy day?”

Elise frowned at him. “‘Patriarch’?”

“It’s a nickname his men have for him,” Kyo said, “kind of a term of endearment. Isn’t that right…Agent Stark?”

Stark glared at him, then nodded curtly and smiled politely. “Yes, Kyohei, that’s right. Now, Elise, Mrs. Tachibana, I’d like you to step outside. I’d like to ask Kyohei some questions--”

Kyo got agitated. “No, I want them to stay. I don’t trust you--”

Kyo’s Mom soothed, “It’s all right--”

A woman’s voice interrupted: “She should stay. He has the right to counsel during questioning.”

A woman with purple hair in a business suit came into view. Behind him was a big, muscular man with ocular implants and a light buzz cut. 

Stark smiled at the woman. “Ah, Colonel Kusanagi and the redoubtable Batou. What brings the head of Section 9 down from their her ivory tower?” 

“Section 9 has been handed this investigation,” Kusinagi explained, “and I have decided to take charge of this case personally.”

Stark bristled. “I wasn’t informed of this, Colonel.”

“I just received word from the prime minister, Agent Stark. You can stay on as the American liaison to the our government, but this is primarily a Japanese matter, and Kyo has the right to have his mother present, if he wants her to stay.”

Kyo didn’t hesitate. “I want her to stay.”

“All right.” Kusanagi looked at Stark.

Stark and his goon backed away and leaned against the wall.

Kusanagi came forward and said gently, “All right, Kyohei, just tell us what happened.”

Kyo shrugged. ‘Meg said “tell the truth,”’ he thought. 

So he told them what had happened. Mention of another universe barely got any raised eyebrows. But describing how Maria had started glowing was more than his mother could take. “Kyohei!” she interrupted. “The Colonel asked you to tell the truth, and now you’re making things up? Why are you protecting those bitches after what they did?”

The doctor stepped forward. “He may not be lying, Colonel, Mrs. Tachibana. He may honestly believe what he is saying. As I was explaining earlier, Kyohei’s captors appeared to have injected him with some powerful psychoactive drugs. While we don’t know what they all were, it’s clear they induced some hallucinations and false memories.”

Kyo’s mom was agitated. “Will he ever get his memory back?”

“Maybe, maybe not,” the doctor answered, “although with therapy he should learn to cope with the experience.” He turned to Kusanagi and the Patriarch. “No more questioning today.”

8

8

As they left the hospital in their car, Stark’s goon was behind the wheel. He said, “I can keep surveillance on Tachibana.”

“If you think it’s worth it,” Stark answered.

“You don’t?”

“What I think is that Meg and Drago made certain Kyo couldn’t give us any useful information, and then cut him loose. The girls got to say a proper goodbye to him—or as close as they can come to that under the circumstances—and they’re not going to try and contact him again. Leave him to Kusanagi. If she decides to let him go to France, let her. Meanwhile, I want to talk to Falco. We’ve wasted enough time with this ‘joint investigation.’ It’s time to take the battle to my former student. And this time will be the last time.” 

8

8

Kyo spent a couple more days in the hospital. Kusangi questioned him a few more times, but she couldn’t coax him out of his story. The last time he saw her, Elise was at the Colonel’s elbow, Batou leaning on the doorframe, and the colonel had papers for Kyo to sign.

Kyo asked, “What’s this?”

“Your application for a long stay visa,” Kusnagi explained. “Your girlfriend can be very persuasive, and the French ambassador owes me a few favors. Not to mention some poker money, but that’s another story. You can have your visa within two days, three tops.” She put it on the tray table in front of him with a pen. “Sign it.”

Kyo looked at it for a long moment, but then he read the look on Elise’s face. He signed it.

Kusanagi picked it up and said, “Now let me give you some friendly advice, Kyo: Never, ever, ever, try to contact those girls again. Even if you put aside what happened this time, there’s no way any good can come of having accused terrorists in your life. You’re lucky they gave you the boot alive. Next time you may not be so lucky. Clear?”

Kyo looked at her for a long moment and said, “All right.”

8

8

“Nice speech,” Batou said as he and Kusanagi rode the elevator down. 

“Huh?”

“The ‘stay away from the nasty girls’ speech. His mom will sure be happy to hear that. But you saw the look in his eyes. You read the file. You honestly think that’s what really happened, that they doped him up and discarded him?”

“Sure looks that way…and even if it’s only for appearances, it’s a good way to get him out of harm’s way, so either way he should stay away from them. I’m more worried about our friend, the ‘Patriarch.’ What do we really know about him?”

“Not much, and yes, I have been asking around.”

“The old PM went along with Glenford taking over Tokyo, and then when he’s toast, this Stark pops up out of nowhere. I don’t like it. We’ll continue the investigation and play along with our American cousins. But when the other shoe drops, I want us to be ready to move before it hits the ground.” 

8

8

Kyo’s last days at the Love and Happy Culinary Design School weren’t his happiest. On returning to class he learned that Hayao and Shiho had narrowly avoided being expelled. As it was, their team had been broken up; Hayao and Shiho were each in different groups, and Kyo found himself in a group with Elise and two other students he hadn’t really got to know and he had trouble remembering their names. When he got home from school on the end of his last day, he found his long stay visa waiting for him in the mail.

He managed to steal some contact with Shiho and Hayao through social media, and they had a couple of group video chats. But it was obvious that they were in the dog house, and his parents did not approve of him talking to anyone but Elise.

The day he sold his scooter, he took it for one last drive around Tokyo. After driving through the intersection where he had met Sei, he drove to many of the locations where the trailer had been based. He found he had no trouble remembering the routes. He wasn’t sure why he did it. Of course, Sei and the girls did not appear, but he was hoping for some sign. 

His last stop was at the car dealership where it had all started. He nodded to a security camera, just in case Amy was watching.

When he got home, a buyer he had traded emails with was waiting to take possession of the scooter. He accepted the man’s money and watched him drive away. 

His mother asked him, “Where were you?”

“Around,” he replied. 

“Around where?”

“Old haunts.”

His mom put it together and scowled. “Kyohei…you really are too kind-hearted for your own good. After what they did to you, you should stay away from anything related to them, and be glad you’re going to France in a few days. One day, you’ll look back and be glad this happened.”

“Maybe. But that’s not today.”

Jean-Pierre sprang for his farewell dinner at a swanky restaurant. That night, he accepted Else’s invitation to spend the night with her. He woke up in the middle of the night, hours after they’d made love, and looked down at Elise. ‘How did I end up here?’ he wondered before he fell asleep again.

The day he left for France, his parents went with him to the gate. As the plane called boarding and he said goodbye to his parents, he kept scanning the faces around him, looking for something familiar. Of course, he didn’t see anything.

‘If they could make it,’ he thought, ‘they would have. That’s it…right?’

Elise took his hand. “Kyo? Are you all right?”

Kyo smiled. “Of course.”

Their seat numbers were called. Kyo bid his parents farewell. As he and Elise started down the jet way, he spied a security camera and mouthed the word, ‘goodbye.’

8

8

Despite having to change planes and airlines, the trip was uneventful; Kyo did not lose his luggage. He had no problems at French customs. It wasn’t long before he was settled into the Navarre townhouse…in Elise’s bedroom.

He was still jetlagged the day Elise drove him to the restaurant for the first time, on a sunny afternoon. Although Jean-Pierre and the staff were getting ready to open for dinner, Kyo was introduced to the other employees. 

The hostess was a blonde woman named Paulette. After introductions, she asked, “How did you end up working for those horrible people?”

“They did freak me out at first,” Kyo said, “but I learned to trust them. At some point, I just took a leap of faith…”

Elsie interrupted with a smile: “Which they betrayed. But they will never trouble him again.”

“Maybe,” Kyo said. “But then again, they’re not here to defend themselves.”

Jean-Pierre nodded. “Of course. Let us be fair to Kyo’s absent friends. Innocent until proven guilty.”

Elise added, “Kyo has been through a lot.”

Jean-Pierre showed Kyo around. Kyo’s attention was grabbed by a wall full of pictures of French celebrities and politicians…some of whom were regular customers. “No bad for someone who started with nothing,” Jean-Pierre said. “And I have already informed some of them of the talented new patissier I had hired.”

Kyo gulped. “No pressure.”

“You will be fine. Do you think you can start tonight?”

“Yes, of course.”

Once Kyo had changed into his chef’s whites, he went out the back door and wandered down a path behind the restaurant. 

‘Almost too good to be true,’ Kyo thought. ‘I make it here, I’m on my way to being a world-renowned patissier. And no trio of psycho girls to mess it up.’ 

Then again, it would be just like Jo to barge in, hot on the heels of someone who had taken Meg hostage, and wreck the place. But did he dread it or hope for it?

“Kyohei!” Paulette called from the back door. “We open in a few minutes. You have to get to work.”

“Coming.”

In the kitchen, all was normal: no Meg, no thug holding her hostage, no Jo blowing things up…

…no Sei…

But he had the job he wanted with a normal girl in the city he wanted to be in. What was not to like?

He heard the doors open and contained commotion as diners arrived. 

‘Enough woolgathering, Kyo,’ he admonished himself. ‘Time to get to work and show them what you got.’


	15. Chapter 15

Jo sat on a crate next to a stand in an open air market just down the street from Harper’s bar. As Seefra 1’s suns blazed down on her, Jo held her left arm in front of her face and watched as she slowly flexed the bone blades of her left arm. Although Rhade had provided her with leather bindings to ease the tendinitis that seemed to be an unavoidable fact of having bone blades, her forearms still got slightly sore from practicing controlling the blades’ extension. But at least it gave her something to focus on other than her predicament and her desire to return to Meg. Rhade had said she had been a quick study at learning to use her Nietzschean abilities. Now if only Dylan and Sei could get around to giving her a target or targets to turn those abilities on.

She heard footsteps, looked up, and saw Harper had come over to her. She’d been too lost in her own thoughts to notice him, even with her enhanced senses.

She said, “Hey, Harp. Sorry, I was a million miles away. What’s up?”

Harper continued to smile slightly but otherwise didn’t answer.

“Harp? Seamus? Earth—er, Seefra to Seamus. Hello? You want something?”

Harper spat in her face, turned, and ran towards the bar.

Jo froze, stunned by the assault. For all of Harper’s uncouth manners and annoying advances, he’d still proven himself to be reliable and loyal—almost, in her mind, a high tech Kyohei without the cooking skill. Then she wiped the spittle and took off.

She caught up to Harper just outside the bar. She grabbed him and spun him around. “Harper! What the heck was that? You know my first instinct is to gut you. I don’t want to do that, but what’s going on? Is this because Sei and I won’t do anything with you?”

“No,” Harper said, “it’s because you’re a Nietzschean piece of trash I shouldn’t have anything to do with.”

“Wha….?”

She realized Harper had a hand in his pocket and heard a soft click. Then a loud screech sounded, cutting out all the noise around her and going through to the bone. She let go of Harper and put her hands over her ears, crouching down and crying in pain. 

The noise stopped. As Jo stood, she saw Harper was gone and Beka and Dylan stood between her and the bar, looking at her sternly. 

“Beka? Dylan? What the heck is going on?”

Beka turned to Dylan, looked at him, then turned and went into the bar.

Dylan said, “You can’t be trusted, Jo. You’re a liability. You have to be dealt with.”

“Wha…?” Jo stammered. “What are you talking about? I haven’t—what about Rhade?”

“Rhade has abandoned you.” Dylan drew his force lances and tossed them aside. “I don’t need these to deal with a dishonest loser like you.”

“You, you…” Jo’s bone blades twitched to full extension as her tattoo became visible and blazed to life. “I’ve played straight with you so far, and this is the thanks I get? Fine! You showed me a new world? I’ll show you one. Welcome to hell!”

Dylan grinned. “I’m already there.”

“Then I’ll wipe that smirk off your face--”

“Nietzscheans. You talk too much! You should be called the Blabbermoutheans.”

Jo roared and charged. Dylan intercepted her with a side kick to her stomach. Jo staggered back, shook it off, and charged again. She dodged another kick and then she was close enough to trade punches with Dylan. Dylan found the smaller girl pressing him hard, and he barely avoided being clipped by her bone blades more than once. 

They traded shots. When Jo saw an opportunity, she spent a spinning kick into his stomach. He staggered back through the door of the bar. The door closed after him. 

Jo approached the door carefully. It slid open and she saw the interior empty. Dylan was nowhere to be seen, although she did smell him. Jo cautiously entered the bar, her anger moderating slightly. A table had been lined up with the door, with a cardboard box sitting on it. It had the name ‘Jo Valentine’ scrawled on the side of it.

Jo cocked her head to the side. “Who the heck is Jo Valentine?”

She heard Rhade’s voice behind her: “You are. Go ahead. Open it. It’s yours.”

Jo looked over her shoulder and saw Dylan, Rhade, and Harper standing behind her. “What?”

“You’re Beka’s daughter,” Rhade said as Harper scooted past her towards the bar. “And you’re a Nietzschean female. Before you can—theoretically—choose a husband, you have to be tested yourself. Looks to me like you passed.”

“Yeah,” Dylan said, wiping blood from his chin. “Although I think Rhade just wanted to watch me get beaten up by someone half my size.”

Rhade held his smile. “I can’t deny fringe benefits.” 

Jo looked behind her and saw Harper getting drinks while Beka, Trance, Sei and Doyle came over to her.

Trance was excited. “Come on! Open the box.”

Jo opened the box. She found a white sleeveless long coat and white bone blade gauntlets. They looked to be about her size. 

“I…” Jo stammered. “Where did you…I can’t except these.”

“Of course you can,” Rhade said, “especially as Harper would ridiculous in them. Yes, he is the only other person they fit.”

Jo took off the improvised bindings and slid on the white gauntlets. They fit perfectly. She pulled on the long coat. 

Harper came over to her with her gun belt. “Here you go, Jo. Sorry about earlier. It wasn’t my idea! But I cleaned your guns and got extra bullets from a local artisan.”

“Thanks, Harp.” She put the belt on under her coat.

Beka came over and held up a plastic vial with silver dust in it. “One more thing: Hair nanobots. You can’t be a Valentine without them. No daughter of mine is going to be stuck with one hair color, and Trance says our nanotech will work in your universe. All you have to do is open the vial.”

Jo accepted the vial and stared at it for a moment. Then she opened it. The dust started moving and flew out. She felt it enter her hair; it tingled. Then she somehow she knew all she had to do was visualize her hair’s appearance. She closed her eyes and formed an image. 

She opened her eyes and Trance handed her a mirror. Jo’s hair was still white, but it ended in blue tips and had a black streak running through it, just as she had envisioned.

Jo couldn’t contain herself. “You…you guys are nuts!” she managed, her eyes tearing up as she laughed.

Beka smirked. “Runs in the family, I think.”

Jo laughed as she and Beka hugged. The others applauded.

Jo heard a familiar voice behind her: “Hey, don’t I get a hug?”

Jo spun out of Beka’s arms to see Meg standing behind her. No—a hologram of Meg.

“Meg!?” Jo stammered.

“Hey,” Meg said. “Amy and their Harper got in touch. Somehow you and Maria—who’s with us, by the way—widened a crack back to our universe and out internet traffic leaked through. So we can talk.”

Sei said, “I decided to hold off telling you because I wanted to surprise you. I thought all concerned could use an excuse for celebration.”

“Morale needed boosting,” Dylan said, “until it hurt.”

“I hope you forgive me,” Sei added.

“Sure.” Jo turned back to Meg. “Meg…look at this!”

“Yeah,” Meg said. “It’ll take a lot of getting used to.”

“It’s not just looks, Meg. I feel…I don’t know what I feel. But I’m not the same and I--”

Doyle interrupted: “Excuse me, but I’m getting a signal from Andromeda. This can’t wait.”

Dylan stepped forward. “Andromeda. Go.”

Andromeda’s face appeared on one of the room’s monitors. “Dylan, a high guard attack cruiser has just come out of the Route of Ages. It’s settling into orbit around Seefra 1. It is within weapons range but has not locked onto me yet. And just now an aircraft has left Boyagen. It’s signaled that it’s flying under a flag of truce and want to parlay.”

“We’ll meet them at the outskirts. Beka, Harper, keep an eye on things here and coordinate with Andromeda. Have the *Maru* prepped for a hot extraction just in case. Rhade, Doyle…Jo? Want in?”

Jo had already slammed a clip into one of her guns and put a round in the chamber. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

8

8

The aircraft looked like a standard transport with vertical takeoff and landing capability. Jo, Dylan, Doyle, and Rhade watched as it landed in a field a quarter mile from the town’s nearest building, its rear facing Dylan’s group.

A ramp lowered itself from the vehicle’s stern. A dozen troops surged out, taking up positions covering Dylan and his team.

Jo’s bone blades twitched as her tattoo glowed faintly and her hand wandered near a holster. “Dylan…”

“At ease, Jo. We won’t do anything provocative.”

Rhade smirked. “Assuming they don’t consider our breathing provocative.”

Dylan let it slide as the Patriarch strolled down the ramp, his hands behind him. A gray-haired man wearing glasses with triangular lenses walked next to him.

Dylan saw Rhade bristle. “Is that Falco?” he asked.

“Yes,” Rhade replied.

“Both of you--” Dylan ordered the Nietzscheans, “stay cool.”

The Patriarch stopped a few paces from Dylan. “Dylan! You’re looking well. I see being stranded in this backwater hasn’t dulled your edge…much.”

“And you’re looking well, too,” Dylan said, “for someone I last saw being attacked by magog.”

“I’m a bit harder to kill than you think.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Dylan’s gaze traveled to the Patriarch’s troops. “So is this is how you honor a truce now?”

“My men were just being overly cautious.” The Patriarch glanced over his shoulder and nodded. His soldiers relaxed, raising their muzzles away from Dylan’s group…but still at the ready.

Falco crossed to Rhade. “So, you’re the end product of my brother’s program. You know, he often spoke of how he received a lot of inspiration for your people on his journey, but he wouldn’t say how or what. How do you feel knowing you are the blue print for your own kind?”

“I’m honored,” Rhade said, “though not as honored as I’d be to break your neck. What you plan is an obscenity.”

“Please,” Falco said. “What I’m doing is no different than what Vedrans have done with AI’s. The difference is, they create computer programs that can control multiple bodies at once. I am doing that biologically. You see…Telamachus? May I call you Telamachus? Anyway, my brother and the Patriarch here made the same mistake—they put faith in the human form. Regardless of how much engineering there is at the genetic level, it’s still a single brain locked in a skull that hasn’t grown in size much for millions of years, controlling a single body that tries to do too many functions at once. Imagine a brain unfettered by the limits of its skull. Imagine humans bread for specific purposes, working with the brains. A new paradigm for human development.” He nodded to Jo. “You treat her like any other Nietzschean. Put that out of your mind. She’s an attack drone. She has two imperatives: to follow orders and to kill the people she’s ordered to kill. Unfortunately her wires got crossed and now she takes ‘orders’ from a street urchin instead of us. Nothing we can’t deal with.”

Jo’s anger flared. “You touch Meg, they won’t ever find your body.”

Falco turned to Jo. “Harm Meg? Goodness no, Jo! You misunderstand. After all this time there’s no undoing that bond, so I’m not going to try. I’m here to make you an offer. I’m prepared to bring you, Meg, Sei, Amy, and even Maria back into the fold. You will live in style and comfort. We’ll even get your friend Kyohei back from France to cook for you. All you have to do is agree to help us.”

“To lead an army to slaughter the human race?”

“Well, it would be you and Maria,” Falco said, “but honestly, you are not unintelligent. You can see what a mess your world is. Poverty, disease, famine—all problems that can’t be cured because there are too many people. The human race must be culled, its population reduced to a more manageable level, and the talents of the populous shaped and directed for its own good.” 

“And you want to use Meg and the others as hostages to ensure my cooperation.”

“I want you to have what you want for your friends. Think of it, Jo. Meg will never want again. That’s why she eats so much, isn’t it? Kyohei and Sei will be together. They’ll have a chance to be happy. Amy will have technology she hasn’t dreamed of to play with. She’ll have the whole internet under her personal control. Everybody’s happy. All you have to do is agree to come with us.”

“And if I don’t come quietly, what, your friend here vaporizes this world?” 

The Patriarch turned to Jo. “Analyze it tactically, Jo. Dylan’s resources are poor. His crew is barely a cohesive unit now. As to the *Andromeda*…I’m sure that even being unfamiliar with our world, you can see she’s a shadow of her former self. I sent one cruiser through and I worried it wouldn’t be enough. But I’ve seen her telemetry. I could have made do with a cutter and half a fighter wing. If we try to take you by force, Dylan will lose. A lot of people will die.” 

“Maybe,” Jo mused. “But Dylan and his friends have beaten the odds time and time again. I see no reason why they can’t beat you. And you and ‘Uncle Falco’ here have to be stopped. So thanks, but I’d rather take my chances with them.”

The Patriarch said, “I see you’ve got another convert, Dylan. Did you know that some High Guard shrinks thought that if we hadn’t got you, you could have been a cult leader?”

“And what’s happened to you, Admiral?” Dylan said. “Every time I see you, you seem to have sunk to a new low. Can you really justify butchering a world?”

“Butchering? No. Separating the wheat from the chaff. And those that join us will find their potential realized in ways they can’t imagine.”

“Somehow,” Dylan said, “I don’t think they’ll find existing as brains in robot bodies appealing.”

“Oh, I think they will, Dylan.”

Three seams appeared in the Patriarch’s face. Then his skull split open, revealing an egg-shaped plastic case the size of his head with a glowing brain inside it.

The Patriarch’s voice came from a speaker in the case: “It worked for me.”


	16. Chapter 16

“Admiral! My god!” Dylan yelped. For a moment, he forgot all about his recent history with the Patriarch and thought of the woman who had been his friend, his mentor, and who would have been his aunt-in-law if the Fall had never happened. 

The Patriarch’s head closed and he smiled. “It’s really quite liberating, Dylan. You have no idea how many different things are going on in my head right now. The interface technology leaves a little to be desired, though. The audio quality is not quite lifelike, though I suppose with Commonwealth tech it could be improved upon. Have Amy send you a video clip of an old-style video chat and you’ll see what I mean.”

“How…” Dylan stammered, “how could you…”

“‘Give up my humanity’ asks the man who has consorted with Nietzscheans, stellar avatars, and has romantic tension with an android?” He paused and waved his hand. “A low blow, I know. Please forgive me. But in answer to your question, what makes a human, human, Dylan? What sets us apart?” The Patriarch tapped the side of his head. “This, Dylan—the brain, and the few things in it that make it different from an animal’s brain. It didn’t take me long to realize that Falco was absolutely right. After the procedure, I realized I hadn’t given up much of anything. And you know I would never ask my troops to do something I hadn’t done myself.”

Dylan’s eyes traveled over the Patriarch’s troops. “So…your men…”

“No, Dylan, just me for the moment. But that’s enough.” He took a step closer to his old protégé. “You are outnumbered, outgunned, and have poor resources at your command. And you’re fighting a battle that really has nothing to do with you. Jo’s Earth has nothing to do with our universe. If not for Falco’s little…’side project,’ you wouldn’t even know it existed. You should give this one a pass. Yes, I know, you’ve been behind the 8-ball before, and yes, it is your schtick to right wrongs and fight the battles other can’t. But in our last engagements, I was fully human, and the first one ended in a stalemate. The second one resulted in Magog from the future being brought back to our time.” He paused. “God, our lives our insane, aren’t they? I can’t believe I said that with a straight face.

“But as I was saying, before I was fully human, and even with the advantages I had in men and materiel, we were evenly matched. Now, I have more men, more equipment, more ships, and I am more than human. I am beyond Rhade and Jo combined. You really will lose this engagement.”

“I’ve heard that before, Admiral. I’m still standing.”

“I thought you might say that, Dylan. I could force the issue and take Jo by force, but it would be in everyone’s best interest if she came willingly. I won’t force the issue. I will give you, say, 48 hours. Deliver Jo by then, and Seefra 1 gets left unmolested. But if you don’t turn her over…” He held up one hand with the fingers closed together, then spread them quickly “…poof! No more Seefra system. Not my preferred outcome; I am a little homesick for Tarn Vedra myself. But we play the hands we are dealt. The choice is yours. Falco?”

Falco and the Patriarch turned and went back up the ramp. The Patriarch’s troops backed up the ramp, and it closed behind them. The vehicle took off and flew away. 

8

8

Batou stood up from the chair outside Kusanagi’s office as she came out of the elevator. “Didn’t go well with the PM?”

“Inside.”

In her office, the doors were closed. 

Batou said, “Well? Are you going to make me guess?”

“I was able to win some concessions from them the PM,” Kusanagi said. “First, I don’t have to have my head examined for suggesting there might be another universe involved. Second, when Sei and her girls resurface, they can be arrested instead of shot on sight.”

“Are serious? What about Stark?”

“An internal matter for the Americans. Not our concern.”

“Are you kidding me? If even half of what we’ve intercepted from Amy is true, this guy—I don’t know what this guy is--”

“Oh, Batou, he is so dirty, he’s radioactive. But the PM wouldn’t budge. And I kind of like keeping my job.”

“So what do you want to do?”

“We take it one step at a time. When the girls emerge, we nab them. And then we’ll see about the Patriarch.”

8

8

Kyohei wandered around the evening garden party. Jean-Pierre had roped him into a catering job, cooking on site for important clients. But he had also given him the freedom to wander around. 

At one point he did a double take and took another look at a woman he had glimpsed through the crowd. She had his back to him. She had long red hair, was wearing a yellow dress and a cowboy hat, and she was about the right height… 

He came up behind her just as she turned around. It wasn’t Meg.

She jumped with a start. 

He said, “I’m sorry. I’m…I’m the Navarres’ new pâtissier. Have you tried any of the cakes?”

“Was the chocolate one yours?” She was an American—Texan, he guessed.

“Yes.”

“We were just talking about that. It was delicious! Well done.”

He’d taken a few steps away when a bearded portly man got in his path and said, “Gauging the reaction of the customers?”

“Mr Cousteau! I didn’t see you sir.”

“Quite all right, Kyohei. You are not only a good chef, but attentive to the reaction of your customer. And that one was very important, an American country western star. Her endorsement will go a long way in certain circles. Very forward thinking of you.”

“Yes, sir. Of course, sir. That was it.”

“And please call me Henri.”

“Yes, s—I mean, yes Henri.”

Henri Cousteau smiled, nodded, and resumed his own hobnobbing. 

Kyo turned away and headed towards the edge of crowd. He tried not talk to anyone as his thoughts returned to Jo, Meg, Amy…

…Sei…

“Time,” he muttered to himself. “Maybe I just need time.” But even as he said it, he wasn’t sure he believed it. 

8

8

“…and that’s the battle plan,” Dylan said, sitting around a table with Sei, Jo, and his crew in Harper’s bar. Holograms of Meg and Maria were off to one side. “Any questions?”

Jo was sitting with a chair turned around, leaning on the back. She said, “One—why are we doing this? It should be blindingly obvious this is a trap! Why are we walking into it?”

Maria nodded. “I agree.”

Rhade smirked slightly. “I couldn’t have put it better myself.”

Dylan pressed his hand against his cheek. “Wow. Three Nietzscheans all being wet blankets. Who’d have thought it?”

Beka said, “It’s even worse. I’m their alpha mom. And I agree with them, so that makes it four Valentines.”

Rhade’s smile faded. “Why did you have to spoil the moment?”

Dylan said, “All right, Jo. You know what the stakes are. You tell me. What should we do? And do you have a better plan than mine?”

Jo looked down. Then she turned to Rhade. “Does he do that a lot?”

“All the time,” Rhade said. “It is so annoying.”

Jo looked at Dylan. “All right, Dylan. Let’s do it. Walk into the trap and give the bad guys and express trip to hell.”

Dylan smiled. “All right, let’s…you know, after that, it would sound lame.”

Rhade couldn’t not smirk.


	17. Chapter 17

“Colonel!”

“Yes, Batou?”

“The Patriarch’s men are moving—converging on this address. A disused warehouse. At least that’s what the public records say.”

“What? Why?”

“I don’t know. But if I were up to something off the books, that’s where I would go.”

“No faulting your instincts. And if we catch him interfering in an investigation that he’s not supposed to be involved in…How soon can our people move in?”

“Not fast enough if something is going down.”

“It will have to do.”

8

8

Alone on the *Andromeda’s* command deck, Harper plugged one when of the lead into the flight control console, and the other into the dataport in his neck. 

Andromeda’s image appeared on the screen. “Harper. Dylan just gave the signal.”

Even though Harper was the only one aboard, the klaxon sounded, and Andromeda’s voice summoned the crew to battle stations. Harper liked to think of it as her war cry.

Andromeda reported, “Weapons systems online, though I most point out, Harper, that my weapons are nowhere near capacity.”

“Your electronic warfare suite at full power?”

“Yes.”

“Then we’re good to go.” Harper closed his eyes and found himself on a plateau in Andromeda’s VR matrix, surrounded by tactical displays. A 100-foot-tall image of Andromeda’s core personality appeared next to the plateau, her head level with Harper’s body. “Ok, darlin’,” Harper said, “you know the drill. Let’s sell it.”

“Initiating attack run.”

The *Andromeda Ascendant* accelerated at the cruiser, firing missiles. The cruiser fired back, and both sets of missiles exploded under fire from the ships’ point defense lasers. But the *Andromeda’s* physical attack was a feint. In the VR matrix, Harper’s plateau expanded and changed shape as he ran towards the wireframe image of the enemy cruiser. Harper jumped onto the back of the ship. He dug his nails into the hull and yanked a panel off; patterns of light appeared underneath. Harper raised a hand and a glowing mass of geometric shapes appeared in it. He jammed the shape down into the wireframe ship. It began to glow and shudder as she jumped back onto the plateau. The wireframe ship’s color dulled as it began to drift.

Andromeda reported, “Enemy vessels IT network disabled.”

“Finish the job, Darlin’.”

“Firing…weapons and propulsion disabled. The enemy is--” She broke off and an alarmed look crossed her face. “Wait…what? Harper, pull--”

Too late. Disks of light came at Harper from four directions and slammed into him. He cried in pain as an electric shock ran through his body. He woke up in the real world and found he had fallen to the floor of the command deck. The lights were flickering, and Andromeda’s images had vanished. 

He pulled the lead out of his neck as he got to his feet. “Andromeda--”

The deck rocked from explosions and sparks flew from the control panels.

“Andromeda!” He shouted. “Rom doll!”

The noise stopped. The lights steadied and rose. Then Andromeda’s hologram appeared next to him.

Harper said, “Andromeda, what was that?”

“ECM counterattack,” Andromeda answered.

“From the cruiser?”

“No. There are four other cruisers. They held back in full stealth mode…”

“They watched our attack. And they got our number and punched our ticket.”

“Yes. My weapons and propulsion systems are completely disabled. You would need a full crew to even think about beginning repairs, Harper. Realistically…I’m dead in the water.”

“So I guess it’s up to Dylan to have a plan B.”

“Yes, although from the looks of the tactical situation, and considering the amount of planning by the opposition, we may be running out of alphabet.”

8

8

Leo’s truck crashed through the gate around the warehouse. Leo, Meg, Maria, Peter, T. G., Takane and Elysian poured out. Though they were outnumbered, they made short work of the guards.

Inside, the space was dominated by a rectangular frame with a glowing image of the Route of Ages rotating inside it. A pair of metal cylinders flew out of it and bounced and rolled on the floor. The surrounding the troops cautiously approached while others leveled their guns at the portal. The cylinders exploded, all light, noise, and smoke. Then Dylan, Rhade, Jo, Beka, Sei, and Doyle ran out, weapons blazing.

As Meg and her group broke in (although none noticed Maria was absent), Falco slipped through the melee and into a rear office. He pressed his palm against the wall and a second portal appeared, his own escape route that he had not told the Patriarch about. While Falco had faith in the patriarch’s abilities, he had read the files on the Dylan Hunt and had decided it would be best to retreat until he knew the outcome of the engagement. If the Patriarch won, Falco could return and resume the work. If not, he would find someplace else in the multiverse to continue the work. 

He heard Drago’s voice behind him: “Brother, will you not join me on the plains of Sabotino?” 

Falco spun, drawing his own sidearm as Drago pounced. They struggled over Falco’s weapon; stray shots clipped the edge of the portal. Sparks and lightening flashed in it. Then they tumbled into it before the portal vanished and the wall exploded. 

8

8

As the last of the troops were mopped up, the two groups came together. Jo and Meg hugged. 

Trance faced T. G. They smiled and said “Snap!” in unison.

Rhade said, “That was too easy.”

Dylan groaned, “Still glass half full, Rhade?”

Jo said, “No he’s right. That was too easy.”

Meg looked around. “Wait a minute—where’s Maria? Anybody see her?”

T. G. said, “Forget Maria. Where’s—” She saw something over Trance’s shoulder. “DOWN!” She pushed Trance to one side. As Trance fell, a shot hit T. G. in the stomach. Her entire body turned to ash and crumbled. 

The Patriarch walked towards them, force lance drawn, as other Templar troops filled the room. He said, “Microscopic nova bomb, not something a stellar avatar wants to run into. Do surrender, Dylan.”

It didn’t take long for all but Dylan to be lined up on their knees. The Patriarch ordered Dylan be separated and brought to one side. 

The Patriarch applauded. “Well done, Dylan! I have to admit, you had a good plan. Masterful strategy. If I hadn’t been ten steps ahead of you before we first talked the other day, you would have won. Or at least you would be in a better situation than you are now.”

“You wanted this all along,” Dylan said. “You were hoping I would bring both Beka and Jo to you.”

“And by now, the *Andromeda* has been disabled, and I’m sure Mr. Harper can be persuaded to turn her over to me. Maria is absent, but I am sure we will find her soon. Nietzscheans aren’t exactly coded for stealth, so it’s only a matter of time. So with her and Jo, and Beka and Drago’s bones, I will have all the genetic material I will ever need. And Falco has taken the technology far enough that I don’t really need him anymore either. I have other engineers who can improve upon it, and what he has learned about the Route of Ages opens other worlds, other Earths to me.”

“You won’t win in the end.”

The Patriarch took a step closer to Dylan. “Only if you remain alive. That’s when you’re at your best, isn’t it? When your back’s against the wall, you pull together whatever you can for a come-from-behind victor. Your mind is working on it now, isn’t it? And there’s only one way to stop this, Dylan. I am truly sorry about this. Please understand that in spite of our recent history, I harbor no ill will towards you. I still have a great deal of affection and respect for you. I truly wish it had not come to this. But you understand.”

A blade sprouted from the back of the Patriarch’s right hand. He made a fist and slammed it into Dylan’s chest.

“Goodbye, Dylan,” the Patriarch said.


	18. Chapter 18

It only took a second. It seemed to take forever.

Dylan felt the blade enter his body and penetrate his heart. He thought he was somehow aware of every tissue, every cell, it cut through. 

He was dying. And there was nothing he could do about it.

No plan B. Or C. Or D. Or any other letter. Nothing he or anyone could do to stop the Patriarch now. 

‘Let go.’

He didn’t so much hear words as become aware of the concept, and it made sense: He couldn’t fight anymore, so he had to stop fighting. There was no point. His crew, his ship, the Commonwealth, the Seefra system—everything. He had to leave it all behind.

He had to let it all go.

…let it go…

…let…

…it…

…go…

…

8

8

Meg flinched as Dylan’s body started glowing and got as bright as the sun. She heard the Patriarch’s voice: “What!? Are you kidding me!?” Then the light flared brighter. Dylan, the Patriarch, the Patriarch’s Templar troops, and Rhade, Beka, Trance, and Doyle had disappeared. 

8

8

Rev Bem turned, shielding his eyes from the light that suddenly filled the Wayist temple.

The light condensed into a form; a man Rev new.

Rev yelped, “Dylan!?”

Dylan held a baby in his arms. “Yes, you can call me Dylan.” He crossed to Rev and handed the Magog monk the baby. “Her name is Constanza. Teach her the Way, Rev. Raise her to be just and moral. She has the skill. She needs the guidance and the moral clarity. I can’t think of anyone better.”

Dylan stepped back, glowed brighter, and vanished.

Rev looked up at the ceiling. “You really know how to test me.” Then he looked down at the baby.

8

8

Elysian said, “My work his done.” And he vanished in blue light.

As Meg, Jo, Leo, Takane, and Sei got to their feet, the portal began to spark and flash.

Meg and Jo shouted, “Run for it!” 

They got out barely ahead of an explosion. Then as they turned and looked, the building glowed, crumpled, collapsed to a point of light, and vanished.

8

8

Dylan stood on top of a mesa with Flaven, overlooking a wide plane with clouds racing by. Of course, it was only a representation. The whole universe was open to him.

Dylan said, “I can go anywhere—any place, any time. I can do anything.”

“Yes,” Flaven said.

“I can help my friends. I can get them back home. I can save the Seefra system.”

“No.”

“‘No’? How is that possible?”

“The journey of the Paradine is to transcend all physical and mortal limitations. The only way you can stay as you are now is to leave everyone and everything that meant something to you behind. If you return to your friends, even emotionally by trying to help them…”

“…I will give up being a full paradine. I will be as I was.” He said it without emotion. It was just a statement of fact.

“Yes.”

“So either way, my friends are still stuck in the Seefra system.”

“Yes. But you can begin your journey as a Paradine. All you have to do is let them go.”

Dylan looked at Flaven. Then he took a step back. “I’m not ready to give them up. I’ll find another way to save them.”

Flaven smiled. “Of course you will, Dear One. For that is the journey you are on as Dylan Hunt.”

Light washed over them…

…and then…

8

8

Standing at the *Andromeda’s* flight control console, Harper slowly turned around. 

Dylan, Beka, Rhade, Trance, and Doyle were standing behind him.

The lights grew brighter and steadied. 

Dylan stepped forward. “Andromeda. Status report.”

“Yes…” Andromeda’s hologram said. “Weapons and propulsion have been restored, though I don’t know how, and there is till considerable battle damage to be repaired. Sensors appear to be operating normally, but the enemy ships have disappeared.”

“Your sensors are accurate. Mr. Harper. Would you care to join me in beginning repairs?”

“Sure, Boss.” Harper and Dylan turned to leave.

Beka said, “Uh, Dylan--”

“Not now, Beka.” Dylan and Harper left the command deck.

Rhade sagged. “Deus ex Machina was never my favorite plot device.”

“Speak for yourself,” Beka said. “Times like this, I’ll take being friends with the Machina.”

8

8

Meg, Jo, Leo, Takane and Sei turned at the sound of sirens. Section Nine squad cars and vehicles surrounded them. Armored men poured out and trained their weapons on them.

Leo and the girls raised their guns.

Kusanagi got out of the back of her squad car. “Sei! I have a warrant for your arrest and questioning.” She paused. “I have been granted broad authority by the PM in this matter. If you come quietly, we can work something out.”

Sei said, “Ladies? And gentleman?”

Jo said, “Meg?”

“I’ll do whatever you want, Jo,” Meg said, “as long as we go together.”

“All right then.” Jo raised her Desert Eagles to the sky. “Dying serves no purpose,” she said as she crouched down. “Where there’s life, there’s hope.” She laid her guns on the ground. The others followed suit, and the section seven cops swarmed in, patted them down, and cuffed them.

8

8

Kyohei stood facing the TV in the kitchen. Though the sound was off, he could see the news clip about Jo, Meg, Sei, Leo and Takane being arrested.

He turned and saw Elise looking at him.

He looked at her for a long moment. Then he turned and got back to work.


	19. Chapter 19

“The US Congress and Japanese parliament are investigating recent events.”

“Not to worry. Once the populace has moved on and forgot recent events, the ‘investigations’ will be concluded with some no-names being thrown in prison.”

“Without Stark and Musevini, our efforts have been set back considerably.”

“We ruled this planet before they appeared. They were of use to us, but we don’t need them, especially as we still have Musevini’s research.”

“Correct. We will bide out time, and when we are ready, we will harvest--”  
The doors of the darkened conference room were flung over. The dozen individuals seated around the table turned to see Maria walk in, robots with glowing brains in transparent head bubbles coming in behind her. Maria was dressed in a leather vest, with her bone blades sticking through black leather gauntlets.

“Don’t bother calling your security,” she said. “You will find they are all quite dead.” 

Five minutes later, Maria addressed the newly-deceased former leaders of Zero around the table: “So, I break into Zero’s secret headquarters and find that the leaders of Zero, representing the clans that have ruled this planet since time immemorial, are depressingly human. No wonder you made such a mess of things. But not to worry; you had the good sense to create me.” She smiled at the people she and her robots had just killed. “I’ll take it from here.”

8

8

Dressed in her military uniform, Colonel Kusanagi stood at attention in the prime minister’s office and kept her eyes glued to a point above the man’s head.

The PM kept his eyes on the Colonel’s one page proposal. He said, “You know what the most interesting thing is, Colonel?”

“What’s that, sir?”

“Your proposal is the sanest part of this affair.” He dropped the printout on his desk and leaned back in his chair. “Parallel universes. Time travel. Genetically engineered superhumans. And throw on top of that two brothers who are mad scientists, and it’s a tossup as to which one is madder. Teenage assassins running around in their underwear seems positively pedestrian by comparison.” He got up, walked around his desk, and sat on the edge of it, facing the colonel. “What about this ‘route of ages’? Do we still have access to it? Have we had any further contact with this Seefra system?”

“No to both questions, Mr. Prime Minister. We’ve put our best people on it, and as far as we can tell, the portals to it are well and truly closed, and we have no idea how to open them again. The only good news is that, according to Jo, Seefra is a galactic backwater, and doesn’t have to resources to be a threat, even if they could open the portal from their side.”

“All right then, Colonel, to the matter at hand. Allow me to play devil’s advocate. If Jo is only one we really need, why bother with the others, much less get in bed with a Chinese triad? Why not throw the others in jail and throw away the keys?”

“For the same Zero held Meg hostage: She is the key to controlling Jo. As long as she is safe and happy and not threatened in any way, Jo is…manageable. And the only person who has been able to create an environment where Meg felt safe and happy and, most importantly, had no desire to leave, was Sei.”

“There’s no other way?”

“You’ve read the brief on how Zero conditioned Maria, and even she became a handful. With Jo…she was bad enough before, and this experience has, for lack of a better term, upgraded her. We ran computer simulations on what would have happened had Jo not come quietly. The best-case scenario is Batou and I could have taken her down in the end, but we would have lost between 85 and 90 percent of our squad, there would have been property damage and maybe some civilian casualties, and my body would still be in the repair shop.”

“And the worst-case scenario?”

“You really don’t want to know.”

“And Bailan’s part in this?”

“In addition to their intelligence on Zero, they have resources that can minimize the government’s involvement. In exchange, our organized crime investigators…don’t have to hurry.”

“I see. This may be the one thing I am remembered for, no matter what else I do in office.” The Prime Minister looked down at the carpet between himself and the colonel. Then he reached behind him, got her proposal off his desk, and handed it to her. “All right then. You were never here. We never discussed this. And I never gave you my approval.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Don’t thank me, Colonel. Because if this blows up in our faces, I guarantee your head will roll long before mine does.”

“Fortunately, mine is already detachable.”

8

8

Dressed in an orange prison coveralls, her hair hanging around her shoulders Sei entered the conference room and sat at the table. 

Kusanagi was leaning against the opposite wall. “Orange is not really your color.”

“You did not come here for small talk, Colonel.”

“In a hurry to get to the spa?”

Sei didn’t answer. 

Kusanagi crossed to the table and sat opposite the Chinese mob princess. “You should know Amy turned herself in. You all are looking at multiple charges from the attack on RAPT. You did the right thing the very, very wrong way, and you have to pay for it…for starters. You’re also being looked at for racketeering charges. The NYPD is looking at Meg for about three hundred open cases of petty theft, assault, and, believe it or not, multiple charges of endangering the welfare of a child. Takane is under investigation by the NPA’s internal affairs division and may be finished as a cop. And don’t get me started on the number of murders fifty-six law enforcement agencies want to pin on Jo. If even half those charges hold up, you and the girls are going away for the rest of your lives.”

“You underestimate Bailan’s legal resources, colonel.”

“Oh, Bailan has more money than God and the best shysters money can buy, no question. But do you really want to bank on that? This is a marathon, Sei, not a sprint. Capone, Gotti, they were all brought down. And they weren’t involved in the biggest terrorist attack on Japanese soil. And what do you have to look forward if Bailan can’t spring you? Section nine is recommending Jo be incarcerated at the bottom of an abandoned mine shaft, sedated under heavy restraints, with a nuclear warhead sitting on her head, and even that might not be enough. You, Meg, and Amy spend your entire lives behind bars. And it goes without saying Meg is separated from Jo forever. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like those odds, Sei.”

“And you are here to offer me an alternative?”

“Zero has gone to ground. Maria is also missing. We think there’s a connection. And we’re not sure where either or both will pop up next. We need someone who can move in the shadows, be the tip of the spear, and go where even section nine cannot. Someone with track record of taking a mission with no chance of success and turn it into 100% chance of winning.”

“Someone expendable who can provide you with plausible deniability.”

“If it comes to that, though I will protect you to the best of my abilities. If it makes you feel better, my neck is on the line for even suggesting this.” Kusanagi reached across the table and grabbed Sei’s hand. “Sei, I get it. You’re proud and stubborn. You don’t want to admit to weakness, and you don’t want to be beholden to anyone. But the war you’ve been fighting isn’t over, and your girls won’t have anything resembling normal lives if the charges against them hold up. I am the only way to get you and the girls out of jail and back into the fight. I know it’s asking a lot. But for the love of God, swallow your pride just this once and say yes.”

8

8

“Are you sure that if I stab you in the chest, you won’t get us home?” Rhade asked as he walked down one of the *Andromeda’s* corridors with Dylan and Beka.

“Positive,” Dylan said. 

“Can I stab you anyway?”

“Rhade.”

“All right. And you say Nietzscheans are wet blankets.”

Dylan said, “I’m more concerned about how things are going on Jo’s Earth. Trance says that path in the Route of Ages is now closed up, so we can’t help them if we wanted to.”

Beka grinned. “They’ll be fine! My daughter is there.”

“Yes,” Dylan said. “So you see my problem.”

“Don’t sugar coat it, Dylan,” Rhade said. “That Earth is doomed.”

“For once, Rhade, we agree on something.”

Beka tisked. “I want to know what happened to Falco. Rhade? Anything from Nietzschean history?”

“Only one thing, Beka,” Rhade answered: “When he was an old man, Drago told one of his sons that Falco had met his fate on the Fifth Babylon.”

8

8

“You and your officers have been most helpful, Captain Sheridan,” Falco said as he followed Captain John Sheridan into the depths of the Babylon 5 space station. 

“The defense of Earth is my priority as an Earth Force officer,” Sheridan said. “Therefore you have our full support.”

“Indeed.” Falco remained courteous to hide his true feeling. The Earth alliance that governed this universe’s Earth was hungry for any advantage over perceived alien threats, and this Sheridan was clearly brain dead lunkhead who would follow orders without question. It wouldn’t take him long to resume his work. And by the time the humans of this Earth realized what was happening, it would be too late.

They came to a large metal door with manual locks on it. Sheridan undid the locks and pulled the door open. “Through here, professor. You will find everything you need.”

“Thank you, Captain.”

Falco stepped through the door and found…

…nothing. No lab. No equipment. No assistance. Just a largely empty space with supporting pillars and machinery. 

Falco turned but Sheridan had already closed the door. Falco heard it lock, and he saw there were no locks on the inside.

He heard footsteps behind him and saw Drago come out from behind one of the pillars. 

Drago said, “Hello, Brother. Care to dance?”

8

8

Meg finished drying her hair and inspected her work in the bathroom mirror – the silver streak she had dyed into her hair. The trailer buzzed with morning activity; they had a big meeting with Sei’s grandfather. 

Jo leaned on the bathroom’s door frame behind Meg. “Trying to match me?”

Meg turned and smiled. “Kind of a photonegative effect.”

“Hmm, let me try.” Jo closed her eyes and her hair turned red with a white streak.

“Show off,” Meg pouted.

Jo laughed and her hair returned to normal – a black streak through white hair with blue tips -- as she caressed Meg’s cheek. 

Meg reached up and ran her finger along the base of Jo’s bone blades. “These’ll take some getting used to.” She paused. “You’ll take some getting used to. You’re different, Jo, and not just on the outside.”

“I didn’t know who I was before, Meg. And when I found out I’d been grown in a test tube, I felt like a hunk of machinery. But now I feel like I’m part of something bigger than me. I have a mother who’s a hero, even if she denies it. How can I be any less? Yes, I’ve changed. I’m better. And I’m going to show you.”

Meg and Jo embraced. Meg said, “Just don’t be like your dad. He was a douchebag.”

“No argument there.”

They kissed.

“So,” Meg said in a teasing voice. “What are we, from a Nietzschean perspective? What did they think of gay couples?”

“I don’t really know,” Jo said, mirroring Meg’s tone. “If I were a male, I’d be an alpha, and you’d be my first female.”

“First? As in numero uno? You’re one and only?”

“No, first as in first, second, third…Nietzscheans have multiple wives--”

“Nuh-uh. You’re all mine, Jo Valentine, and I’m not letting anyone else near you. And you watch that roving eye if you know what’s good for you. Look but don’t touch. Not anyone but me.”

“I can live with that.”

They kissed again.

Sei knocked on the door frame behind them. “Time to go.”

8

8

Don Laoban sat at the head of the table in the back of the Chinese restaurant that served as a Bailan front. Sei, Jo, and Meg stood behind his chair; that he had seen Meg wearing Jo’s old red coat, and Jo in a white, sleeveless long coat with what Sei called “bone blades” sticking through white gauntlets – and the black streak in her hair, which ended in blue tips – lent credence to Sei’s fantastic story. The men who had governed Bailan in his absence, including the operations chief, sat around the table.

Don Laoban said, “Now that I have resumed control of Bailan, we will correct some recent errors in judgment, and make amends for the damage we have done to the local community. To that end, Sei’s team will be working with Section 9’s Colonel Kusanagi in providing security for Tokyo and hunting down our former allies in Zero. I have personally approved of this deal. I know some of you have expressed reservations about this deal. But Bailan has traditionally never put its survival above the welfare of the people. Bailan created considerable distress by allying with Zero, and it is not only fair that we undo it, our code of honor demands it. If any of you have any objections, feel free to raise them without fear of sanction, and I will answer as best I can. But understand that this is a done deal. Therefore, other than noting your objections, the matter is closed.”

No one said anything. 

“Well then,” Don Laoban said, “are there any other matters? Sei? Is there anything you would like to add?”

“Yes, Grandfather, there are two matters I wish to address.” Sei stepped forward. “All of you know me. I have dedicated my life to serving our clan. My loyalty to Bailan is beyond question. And I will obey orders given to me by Bailan in all things…with one exception: Jo, Meg, and Amy are part of my household for as long they choose to remain with me, and I will answer only to Laoban in matters concerning them. Anyone else who presumes to give me orders regarding them will be lucky if they live to regret it. I trust I will not have to say this again?”

The men seated around the table looked between Sei and Don Laoban and nodded.

“And that brings me to my second point…”

Sei sprang onto the table and with a few steps was in front of the operations chief. Her foot connected to his temple and he spun to the floor. 

Sei snarled, “Call me eye candy again and I will give you a case of indigestion you will never forget!”

The ops chief’s eyes met Laoban’s, the don’s eyes giving tacit approval of Sei’s actions. The ops chief resumed his seat, chastened with eyes downcast.

Sei jumped down from the table and resumed standing by Meg and Jo.

“I believe that concludes today’s business,” Laoban said. “This meeting is concluded. You may go.”

Sei watched the men leave. 

Laoban rose. “Sei.”

“Grandfather.”

They watched him leave.

Meg said, “You missed one, Sei.”

“Who, Meg?”

“You know who.”

Sei’s back stiffened. “Kyohei is gainfully employed in Paris and therefore permanently unavailable. We will have to find a new chef.” She paused and added, “And no one else from the Love and Happy Culinary Design School, either. You will have to look elsewhere.”

“Sei--”

Se’s eyes met Meg’s. “What?”

The two women glared at each other. 

Meg sagged. “We’ll find somebody.”

“Good.” Sei turned on her heal and left the room.

Meg grumbled, “Crap.”

Leo came in. “Meeting over?” he asked.

Meg said, “Yes.”

“Good,” Leo said. He turned to Jo. “Then, Jo, it’s time for you and I to have a serious talk.”

Meg said, “Leo--”

“No, Meg, my mind is made up. I wasn’t there when you were growing up, but that doesn’t mean I can’t exercise my fatherly prerogatives now.”

Jo stammered, “Fatherly…what do you mean? Meg, what does he mean?”

Meg cleared her throat. “Yeah, well, Jo, remember how one of the reasons I came to Japan was to find my dad? Well…” Meg trailed off and nodded at Leo.

Jo stared at them. Then she laughed. “Leo’s your dad? Good one! You had me going for a second.”

Meg and Leo stared at Jo.

Jo’s laughter faded. “Wait…you’re serious? Leo’s your dad?” As the implications sank in, Jo’s eyes widened slightly as her bone blades flattened against her forearms.

Leo put an arm around Jo’s shoulder. “Come along, Jo. I’ll buy us lunch, and then we can have a long talk about your intentions for my baby girl.”

8

8

Meg came up onto the roof of the trailer and stood by Jo. The sun had gone down, and Sei, who was dressed even more provocatively than usual, was getting in the car.

Jo said, “What do you think of the new chef?”

“Meh. The food’s all right…but it’s missing something. That Kyohei magic. Sei heading out again?”

Jo nodded. “She should go easy on the perfume. My eyes are watering from here.”

They watched as the sports car roared away. 

Meg said, “It’s not fair Jo.”

“Life isn’t fair, Meg.”

“Jo, that attitude is the one part of your upgrade I don’t like.”

8

8

Sei kept her face a mask of stone as she drove into the night, headed for the bright lights of Tokyo’s night life district.

8

8

Kyohei stood in the back door of the restaurant, looking out as the sky darkened towards night.

He heard Elise’s voice behind him: “Kyohei?”

“Coming.” He turned and closed the door.


	20. Chapter 20

Four Months Later….

The twenty-something man got to the bottom of the trailer’s steps with Sei, turned to her, and said, “You have no soul. I wish I never met you. If you have even a shred of decency, you’ll forget I even exist.” He turned to another twenty-ish man who was waiting as a cab pulled up next to the trailer. “Excuse me! Can I share your cab?”

“How far are you going?” the other man asked.

“I just need to get to Ikebukuro Station.”

“That’s where I’m going. Get in.”

Jo and Meg came up behind Sei. The Chinese mob princess betrayed no emotion as the cab pulled away with her latest lover and their latest chef.

Meg said, “Wow, this is a first -- the chef and the boyfriend leave on the same morning. How many does that make, Jo?”

“Ten chefs,” Jo said, “and seven boyfriends.”

“Sev--? Oh, RIGHT! I keep forgetting that one when Motoko and Batou went to DC. But I guess he counts because it was longer than two days.” Meg walked around Sei and came face-to-face with her. “But this one was different, wasn’t he, Sei? Teuro wasn’t just some guy you picked up in a bar. He was a special guy you picked up in a bar. You must be heart-broken.” Meg spread her arms. “I’m here for you. Need a hug?”

Sei grunted and headed back into the trailer. 

Meg said, “Jeez…” Then turned as a car pulled up behind them. Batou and Kusanagi got out.

Batou said, “That wasn’t your latest chef leaving, was it Meg? Please tell me we don’t have to buy you guys breakfast again.”

“No, Batou, we already ate. We’re good. Thanks.”

“Thank you for not adding to the colonel’s expense account, Meg. But who was the other guy?”

“Boyfriend number seven,” Meg answered.

“Seven?” Batou frowned and started counting on his fingers.

Meg said, “Remember, there was that guy when you and Motoko went to--”

“Oh, yeah yeah yeah, I remember now. Thanks.” Then he saw Kusanagi rubbing her temples. “Headache, Colonel?”

“You know, Batou, as soon as I get Amy that security clearance, I just might take her up on her offer to see why I’m getting these headaches. The techs downstairs have been no help at all.”

Jo said, “Your bosses aren’t giving you grief over us, are they?”

“Why would they do that, Jo?” Kusangi replied as she, Batou, Jo, and Meg headed for the trailer. “It’s not like Section 9 is working with a group of underage female assassins implicated in both the biggest terrorist attack in Japanese history and a scandal that has rocked governments on both sides of the Pacific and is led by a Chinese mob princess who’s going for Olympic gold medals for Promiscuity and Inability to Retain Domestic Employees for Longer Than Five Minutes. No, everything is just peachy!”

8

8

Dressed in a chef’s uniform and standing by a wedding cake with Elise, Kyo wondered how much of his perspiration was from nervousness and how much was from the lights in the TV studio. Elise and Jean-Pierre had blindsided him with his entry into this French reality TV show on France’s main cooking channel; now that the third and second place contestants had been named, all he could do was sweat bullets.

The host finally said: “…and first place goes to the new power couple of French confectionary, the rising stars Kyohei Tachibana and Elise Navarre!” 

Kyohei let out the breath he had been holding as Elise screamed over the studio audience’s applause. Then he was hugging her as the host talked about he was the first non-French person to win that competition.

But stray thoughts intruded and he couldn’t enjoy the moment as much as he knew he should have.

8

8

“…all I could think was, Amy would Meg would fight over that cake and there would be nothing left of it,” Kyo said as he looked at the concrete wall. He was wearing a wireless headset in the basement of the Navarre’s townhouse. A laptop was on a small work table with the screen split between Shiho and Hayao. It was midnight in the townhouse; Shiho and Hayao had risen early in Japan to have an internet video call with him.

“Little things like that,” he went on. “My phone rings and I hope it’s Sei. I heard a car backfire and I expected to see Jo come running at me. I saw another woman with a tattoo like hers and I stared until I realized it wasn’t glowing. I see someone wearing a cowboy hat and I catch myself thinking I have to buy enough for six people to feed four. I…dream about Sei a lot. And no, I haven’t told Elise.” He turned to face his old friends. “I guess part of me needs to know what happened. I’ve checked the news and found nothing. Have either of you heard anything since they were arrested?”

Hayao and Shiho shook their heads. Hayao said, “Nothing, nada, not a peep. Not even the conspiracy theory web sites say anything. It’s like they disappeared.”

“I’d ask T. G.,” Shiho put in, “but I haven’t seen her in months. I’m sorry, Kyo.” She paused. “Is it…bad?”

“I don’t know,” Kyo said as he sat in front of the laptop. “I have everything I ever wanted. I’m closer to being a world-renowned patisser than I ever dreamed possible. Elise wants us to build a future together, and part of me wants that. But another part--” 

“Kyohei?” Elise was at the top of the stairs. “It’s late, and we have a big day tomorrow.”

“I’ll be right there.”

He heard Elise’s footsteps retreat. He turned back to the laptop. “We’re going to Nice for the weekend. One of Elise’s friends is getting married. I’ll let you guys go.”

His old friends muttered their goodbyes, then Kyo closed the program and turned off the laptop. Then he hesitated: Had someone else been listening in? Was someone watching him now even though the laptop was – or appeared to be – off?

Did it matter?

He closed the laptop and went upstairs.

8

8

The weekend went off without a hitch, or at least with only a few glitches that the bride and groom had to deal with. Kyohei tagged along for the bachelor party while Elise went to whatever the ladies were doing. Of course it was at a strip club. Kyo politely refused private dances, and laughed at the right times when the groom was humiliated on stage. But it was hard to enjoy himself; the company of girls running around in their underwear like Meg and Jo just made the hole in his heart yawn wider. (He also remembered Jo had once told him she and Meg had shopped at a store for female mercenaries, so their clothes were actually tougher than they looked. Remembering that tidbit only made him miss them more.)

‘Will I ever stop thinking about them?’ he wondered. ‘Why can’t I focus on my life here?’

At the wedding reception, Elise caught the bouquet and smiled warmly at Kyo. Kyo smiled back…

…but didn’t try too hard to catch the garter (like anyone was).

Kyo, Elise, and her father spent Sunday sightseeing around Nice and shopping, but Kyo had trouble paying attention. Elise noted something was on his mind at least once. “Is something bothering you, Kyo?”

“No, nothing.”

They took a night train back to Paris. Though the trip wasn’t long, they were all tired. Elise fell asleep with her head on Kyo’s shoulder, and her father sat across from her, reading his tablet. Kyo couldn’t sleep and spent the trip looking out the window.

‘Where are you, Sei?’ he wondered. ‘What happened to you and the girls? Will I ever see you again?’ Without at least knowing she was out there, somewhere, his world felt empty and everything seemed pointless. But even if he left Elise and went back to Japan, where would he look? And that would be after giving up any hope of being a patissier. Of course the thought of giving up his dream was a brick wall between him and Sei…Sei and the girls. But now and then he wondered if that would be a bad thing.

He looked down at Elise – the other half of the cooking team he was becoming part of. He was well on his way to becoming a well-known patissier. But how much of it was from his own skill, and how much because he was sleeping his way to the top? He knew Elise would say it was the former if he asked, but the influential clients he had had because of Jean-Pierre’s connections were hard to ignore.

But without those connections, he had no chance no matter how good he was. And he knew it. He’d known it when he’d first met Elise and her father.

He looked back out the window. ‘That saying of Meg’s was right,’ he thought: ‘“Be careful what you wish for: you may get it.”’

8

8

“We’re at periscope depth,” said Akiko, the 8 year old girl who, with her twin, Mikiko, piloted the submarine *Elizabeth.* Amy sat between her protégés at the central console, Sei sitting behind her in her captain’s chair. Jo, Meg, and Batou watched from one side.

“Raising antenna,” Mikiko chimed in. “We have satellite uplink. Scrambled communication established. Routing to main screen.”

Kusanagi’s face appeared on the main screen.

“Got your alert, Colonel,” Batou said. “What’s up?”

“We’ve hit a snag,” Kusanagi said. “I just found out myself and I’ve literally lost sleep over it. But British intelligence may pull out of the op. It turns out they can’t provide an agent.”

“What!?” Batou yelped. “I thought they would provide a man who could get us into Balfour’s suite. They come up a man short?”

“Not exactly,” Kusanagi explained. “As you all know, Balfour has a weakness for French pastries. He wants to have one delivered to his room by the chef who made it.”

“I know,” Batou said. “The Brit’s man would pose as a chef, Meg would go in with him, and that would be our in. So what happened?”

“So Balfour is a little paranoid,” Kusanagi explained. “It turns out he wants to have the cake made to order, *and* he won’t order the pastry until just before it’s made, *and* he wants his man in the kitchen watching every step of its creation. British Intelligence doesn’t have someone with that skill set. The hotel was dodgy about hosting our op to start with, but they won’t put one of their employees in a risky situation.

“The good news is Balfour is behind schedule, so he’ll be a day or two late arriving in Southampton. But unless we can find a chef who can go in with Meg long enough for her to plant the bug, we’re screwed.”

“Damn it,” Batou growled. “All right, Colonel. I’ll see what we can do on this end. Batou out.”

Kusanagi left the screen, replaced by a tactical graphic.

Batou turned to Sei. “I don’t suppose Bailan has any chefs handy?”

“None that we could get here in time,” Sei said.

Meg took a step forward. “So let me get this straight,” she said. “We need a real patissier. Not someone who could fake it. But someone who talks the talk and walks the walk. The real thing.”

Amy chimed in, “And someone who can work with us. Someone who we can keep cool under pressure.”

Jo came up behind Meg. “And someone who’s close…at the very least in Europe.”

“Preferably in Paris,” Meg said, “someone who’s a hop skip and a jump away.”

“Sei, if you could find someone like that on short notice,” Batou said, “I may be able to get him across the channel pronto. Know anyone, Sei?”

Sei’s back stiffened. “I’m sorry, Batou, but I can’t help you. You and the colonel will have to find another way to bug Balfour. Amy. Set a course back to Japan and implement it as soon as possible.”

She turned and left the control room. Meg hurried after her.

8

8

Meg got to Sei’s cabin just as the door closed and pushed it open. “Sei--”

Sei rounded on the redhead. “You think I don’t know what’s going on here? I’m just surprised you roped the colonel into your little scheme. I thought she was more level-headed than this.”

“What scheme? I found out the same time you did.”

Sei snorted. “You can do better than that.” She turned away and sat at her desk with her back to Meg.

“All right, fine,” Meg huffed. “For the sake of argument, let’s say you’re right. How is that a bad thing?”

“He has a life. We have no business taking him away from it.”

“That didn’t stop you when he quit that time. What changed?”

No answer.

“Sei, I love you like a sister, but there are times when I don’t understand you,” Meg said. “You’re killing yourself! Every day that he’s away you die a little more inside. You miss him as much as the rest of, maybe more. But you won’t even send him a post card. What is wrong with you? You think you’re not doing your duty if you’re not miserable? What is it?”

“I don’t have to explain myself to you, Meg.”

“Sei, please. I’m worried about you. Please, what is it?”

Sei didn’t turn around. “I…can’t.”

“Can’t what?”

“Just can’t.”

“And if you *don’t,* you’ll slowly self-destruct. Come on, Sei. Help me out here. Help me help you.”

“You were the one who staged his mugging so the cops wouldn’t think he was connected to us.”

“That was then. This is now.”

“And if he’s happy in the life he’s chosen?”

“And if he’s not? There’s only one way to find out.”

Sei half turned around and thought for a moment. “All right. We’ll play this your way. We’ll use Kyohei for this op. When it’s done, I’ll ask him if he’d like to come back to Japan and work for me again. But if he says no--”

“He won’t.”

“If he says no, Meg, that’s the end of it! I won’t want to hear another word about Kyohei or any wild fantasies you have about him and me. Deal?”

“Deal.”

8

8

Sei and Meg returned to the control room.

“Batou,” Sei said, “I may have spoken in haste. I think there is someone in the vicinity who can fill our needs.”

“You don’t say,” Batou said.

“Yes,” Sei said. “As you are probably aware, my old chef, Kyohei Tachibana, is in Paris. French pastries are his specialty. He helped us a couple of times, so we can keep him calm in a situation. I believe he can do the job. The only question is how to get him to London without arousing suspicion.”

Batou smiled. “You leave that to me.”

8

8

Jean-Pierre crept down the stairs to the basement and saw Kyo sitting with his back to him at a laptop. The elder Navarre crept up behind Kyo and read the screen. It was a Japanese language site, but he could read it.

Jean-Pierre said, “Catching up on RAPT?”

Kyo’s head snapped around. Then he sagged. “Jeez! You scared me.”

“Sorry. But what are you reading?”

Kyo squirmed in his seat – he knew he had been busted. “Trying to find out what happened to the girls.”

“Any luck?”

“Two hours – and three crashes – chasing down every lead I can think of and I found nothing.” He chuckled. “Amy could have told me that in five minutes, and that’s including the time it would take her to eat a plate of cookies.”

“Elise thinks you spend too much time worrying about them.”

“I know.”

“She has a point, Kyo. She wants what’s best of you. Sei and her girls were nothing but trouble. You are better off without them.”

“You really think so? Seriously, Jean-Pierre, what do you think?”

“I think that on the journey through life, everyone comes across people who act like friends but who really aren’t. You are not alone in this; I had my share of people like that, so I know what I’m talking about. I learned some painful lessons that I would hope to spare you from. Those girls may have acted nice, and Sei was certainly attractive. But true friends would not have been so cavalier about putting you in danger.”

“They weren’t exactly selling Girl Scout cookies.”

“And they weren’t exactly working within the law, either. Believe me, you do not want that sort in your life. All they’ll do is cost you everything.”

“So I’ve been--”

Kyo broke off at voices from upstairs – Elise’s indignant shouting and an unfamiliar voices. Then a man in a business suit came down the stairs with a squad of uniformed cops. Before Kyo knew what was happening, he was face-first to the wall with his hands being twisted behind his back.

The man in the suit had a badge out. “Police, Mr. Tachibana. You are wanted for questioning.”

“Don’t worry, Kyo,” Jean-Pierre said. “I will call our lawyer.” He thought, then added. “I hate to say ‘I told you so.’”

8

8

The squad car hadn’t gone far before it pulled over and Kyo as hustled from it into an unmarked car where he sat in the back with another man in a suit. The ride seemed to go on longer than expected. He was about to ask where he was being taken when he saw they had entered an airfield and were approaching a VTOL jet. 

One of the doors opened and a solider stuck his head in. He shifted his gaze to the suit sitting next to Kyo. “Un-cuff him.”

Kyo felt the cuffs fall from his wrists. He slowly stepped out of the car.

The soldier gestured to the waiting aircraft. “This way, sir.”

“Not until someone tells me what’s going on,” Kyo snapped.

“I can’t give you too many details, sir. But I have been told to inform you that you will be briefed, and after such briefing you will then have the option to participate in the operation.”

“Op…you know I’m a pastry chef, right? What am I supposed to do, bake an exploding cake?”

“Above my pay grade, sir. I’m only following orders. Please, sir.” He gestured to the plane a little more insistently.

“All right. It’s not like I’m going to sleep this week.”

The plane was a military transport. Kyo was given a life vest and a helmet and an empty seat in the cockpit. Though the ride was far from comfortable, he found himself nodding off.

The pilot said something about his watch.

Kyo snapped awake. “What? I’m sorry; I missed that.”

“I said if you have a manual watch, you have to set it back an hour,” the pilot repeated. “We’re crossing the English Channel.”

Kyo adjusted his watch and began to feel a little curious.

The plane set down on some kind of ship; Kyo couldn’t tell if it was an aircraft carrier or a submarine. He got out. As he was taking it in, the plane took off. 

Kyo looked around. “Hope they let me in before they submerge.”

A hatch opened in the deck and a mop of blonde hair popped up. Kyo guessed it belonged to an eight year old girl. 

“Is this him?” The girl was not talking to him even though he had her full attention.

A second, identical head popped up next to the first. “Yes, this is him.”

The first girl hopped up onto the deck; Kyo could see she was wearing a tank top and a skirt. “The master chef?” She began to circle him.

The second girl, dressed exactly like the first, circled in the opposite direction. “The master chef, the renowned patissier!”

“Doesn’t look like much.”

“No he doesn’t. But he will save us!”

“Yes, he will!”

Both girls: “And *she* likes him. Does he still like her? Well does he?” The girls had stopped in front of him and were staring at him intensely.

“What…” Kyo stammered. “Who are you? Where are your parents? What’s going--”

“Akiko! Mikiko!” Sei climbed up onto the deck, stately and as beautiful as ever. “Stop harassing our guest. Get below and help Amy.” When the twins didn’t react immediately, Sei added, “Now.”

“Going!” the girls chorused and disappeared below decks. 

Sei laughed it off. “I swear, Kyo, Amy has been a bad influence on them. And I thought the first three were an armful.”

Kyo was slack- jawed. “Sei?”

“It’s me, Kyo. It’s good to see you again.”

“SEI! OH MY GOD!” Kyo ran to her and snatched her into a hug, shaking and smiling and crying. “I was so worried; I thought I’d lost you.” ‘“Lost you”?’ a part of his mind asked himself, but he didn’t care.

Sei was having a hard time hiding her emotions as she hugged him back. “It’s been a difficult time, Kyo, but…but we’re together again.”

Kyo loosened his embrace and saw that Jo, Meg and Amy had come up onto the deck. Jo’s white hair ended in blue tips with a black streak going through it. She had white gauntlets that her bone blades stuck through, and a white sleeveless long coat. Meg had Jo’s old coat, and her hair had a white streak in it. Amy looked the same, but she appeared to be an inch taller.

Amy sniffed the air. “You still smell like cake.”

“And you still smell like a soldering iron,” Kyo shot back. He looked at Jo. “Jo, jeez, you look…good.”

“Back at ya, pal.” Jo pulled him into a back-slapping hug…that felt like it was going to crush his ribs. “Looks like Elise is feeding you right.” 

Kyo coughed when she released him. “Well, you’re in good shape, all things considered.”

“You have no idea,” Meg said as she hugged him. “We’ve got lots of stories to tell you.” She released him. “And if you ever tell anyone I hugged you, I will rip your lungs out and show them to you.”

“Nice to see you too, Meg.” He looked around. “So the gang’s all here. Was this your way of saying ‘hi’? You could have just called. Most normal people do. No offense.”

Sei said, “None taken. I’m afraid this isn’t just a social call, Kyo. We once again have need of your culinary skills.”

“Really?” Kyo said. “Y’know, Jean-Pierre and Elise aren’t fans of yours, but I’m pretty sure they’d take your money for a catering job or a carry-out.”

“This is no ordinary job,” Sei answered, “and we needed to get you out of France without arousing suspicions about your whereabouts. We need your help to finish one of our jobs, Kyo.”

“Why am I not surprised to hear that?” Kyo lamented.

8

8

Batou leaned against a wall in the control room while Sei and Amy briefed Kyo, Jo and Meg looking on from the other side.

Amy was saying, “…the nanites are keyed to Balfour’s DNA – thank you Jo’s-Momma-in-another-universe – so once they are on his person they’ll collect all the data we’ll ever need. But Meg has to be at most one meter from him for her to release them. We figure having him sign something is the best bet. Especially from a redhead with big boobs. They’re his type.”

“And my cake – or whatever – is what he’ll sign for,” Kyo said.

“Yup,” Amy answered.

“And we have 24 hours to do it and get you back home,” Batou put in. “Your disappearing after being arrested didn’t sit well with your girlfriend. Our friends stonewalled as best they could, but the Navarres’ lawyer got a judge to issue an order to the French government to produce you in court in 24 hours, national security be damned. And that was four hours ago.”

“Yeah?” Kyo said. “And whose brilliant idea was it to grab me like that?”

Batou squirmed against the wall. 

Kyo rubbed his face. “So let me get this straight. I have to bake something – I don’t know what, so I’ll have to wing it – just so Meg can get close enough to release a nan-nano—nan-whatever bug that’ll latch on to this Balfour character. And if he gets wise to us, he’ll probably kill us. And all the while everyone back in France thinks I’m being questioned by the cops and get handed the runaround about where I am. Which will make it very awkward if I’m killed. And thanks to Mr. Subtle here, we have to do it all in less than a day. Have I missed anything, Amy?”

“No, Kyo, you just about covered everything.”

Meg put in, “Except that’ll it be my ass on the line, too, but yeah, you’ve got the essentials.”

“God!” Kyo said. “I do not believe this. And to think that a couple of hours ago, I was waxing nostalgic about you guys and wondering where you were. Yeesh!”

Batou snorted and lurched away from the wall. “Oh, yeah,” he said, not hiding his sarcasm, “this guy will help us. We can count on him. Yeah, r--”

Sei raised a hand, completely unruffled. “Kyohei?” she asked. “Can you help us one more time? Please?”

Kyo thought for a moment. “Amy, is this Balfour a big guy?”

“Oh, yeah, Kyo, he’s definitely packed on the pounds.”

Kyo stuck his hand out. “Tablet.”

Amy handed him a tablet.

Kyo’s fingers flew over the tablet. “This is a short list of the ingredients I want. If Balfour is the kind of guy I think he is, this should be able to cover whatever he wants.” He offered the tablet to Batou and said, “If the restaurant doesn’t have everything, they should send someone out before the call is over. I’ll want it all at my fingertips and ready to go five minutes before I walk in the door. If they give you any lip, tell them I did Celeste Cousteau’s sweet 16 birthday cake, and she and her dad loved it. Whoever you’re talking to will either have a heart attack or give you what you want and then some.”

“Why?” Batou asked as he took the tablet. “Who’s Celeste Cousteau?”

“The daughter of Henri Cousteau,” Kyo explained, “the one food critic on this planet no restauranteur would dare tick off unless they were already planning to commit suicide. He owes me a favor. Two, actually. And there are some pricks in England I wouldn’t mind shutting down.”

Sei smiled. “Mr. Batou, I do believe we are in business.”

“Miss Sei,” Batou answered, “I do believe that anyone who says Kyo is a wimp does not know what he’s talking about. Only question is if he’s always been like this or he just took some lessons in bloodthirsty from you. I’ll get right on this…after I change my shorts.”

8

8

Kyo’s cover name was Satoshi, and the story that he had been brought in special from France to Southampton to fill Mr. Balfour’s order wasn’t too far from the truth. And much to Batou’s amazement, the hotel’s manager all but groveled at Kyo’s feet. 

“I hope everything meets with your approval,” he said, barely hiding his nervousness. “I was, uh, put off by your associate’s brusqueness, but once I knew the quality of the talent he had brought in, I was eager to help.”

Kyo smiled to himself. “Mr. Batou is an acquired taste and, well, you know, he has to work against poor breeding.”

“Yes, of course.” (Batou grumbled but said nothing; Sei smiled slightly.) 

“In any case,” Kyo said, “I think I can work with this. Thank you.”

“If you need anything, just call. And, um, you will mention me to Mr. Cousteau, will you?”

“I’ll put in a good word the next time I see him. Thank you.”

The man left. Quickly.

Batou finally showed his annoyance. “‘Poor breeding’?” 

“Don’t take it personally,” Kyo said. “You have to learn how to speak snob-ese to deal with them.” He turned up his nose. “Isn’t that right, Sei?” he said snootily.

“Yaaaaaassssss,” Sei replied in kind playfully. 

Batou rolled his eyes but let it go.

Balfour’s party arrived at the hotel a few hours later. Right from the moment Balfour came into the kitchen to place his order, Kyo didn’t like him. He must have weighed 400 pounds, was bald with a thin beard, and his cologne smelled so bad it had to be unbelievably expensive. Worst of all, he acted like he owned the place, and that Kyo was supposed to be at his beck and call.

‘Next to Sei, this guy is a huge jerk,’ Kyo thought.

“Hikaru Satoshi,” Balfour said. “So you’re the young man they brought in just to bake for me?”

“The hotel values your custom,” Kyo said. “They wanted only the best to cook for you, so they got me.”

“You’re not French. You have to be very good to make that boast.”

“I’m not. I’m better. And I’ll prove it to you.”

Balfour left after giving his order in exhaustive detail. Balfour’s goon hovered around the kitchen, keeping a close eye on Kyo while he worked…closer than he liked. Finally, Meg came over to the man. “If you could give Mr. Satoshi some space,” she said, “I’m sure he’d appreciate it.”

“My boss wants me to keep an eye on what he’s doing. Make sure he’s the real thing and there’s no funny business.”

“In that case, I’m sure that if the cake isn’t as good as your boss expects because you prevented Mr. Satoshi from doing his job, he’ll chalk it up to due diligence and understand.”

The man gave Kyo more breathing room after that.

Kyo and Meg brought the cake to Balfour’s suite. He made no secret of being attracted to Meg. But when it came time to sign for the cake, he had Meg and Kyo stand a hair too far away and had one of his thugs bring the check to him. 

Kyo thought quickly and carved out a slice before anyone could stop him. “Allow me.” He brought the slice to Balfour; Meg stuck to Kyo’s side. “I trust this will meet with your approval.”

Balfour accepted the plate, scooped up a chunk of cake with his fork, and seemed surprised at the taste. Meg betrayed no sign as she tapped her left heel against the floor. A tiny silver bug flew out of it and vanished up Balfour’s pants leg. Meg hoped no one noticed.

Balfour smiled. “Well done, young man! You have exceeded your boasts. But that raises another question.”

“What?” Kyo asked.

“How the Brits got a nip who could cook that well.”

Before Kyo could say anything else, a hood was pulled over his face. He had enough time to think, ‘Oh, crap, not again,’ when he felt metal on his neck and everything went black.

8

8

Kyo came to in a warehouse. He was strapped to a chair. He saw Meg in another chair across from him, bound and gagged.

Balfour and his goons stepped into his field of vision.

Balfour smiled. “Back with us, I see, ‘Mr. Satoshi’? That cake was truly delicious, by the way, the best I’ve ever had. A pity we had to leave it behind.”

“You should have told me you were in a hurry. I can do carry-out orders.”

“I’m sure. No, son, you seem to be something of a mystery.” Balfour jerked a thumb at Meg. “I know who she is – Megumi Gillespie, originally from New York, late of Tokyo. Most recently employed by the lovely Sei of the Bailan clan. Speaks at least two languages in spite of having little formal education. How a girl from Brooklyn got named ‘Megumi,’ I don’t know, but that’s not important. What troubles me is I don’t know who you are, and I have an impressive database of law enforcement and intelligence operatives. Yet I can’t seem to find you.”

“You won’t,” Kyo said.

“Who are you?”

“I’m a chef.”

A goon slammed his fist into Kyo’s stomach.

“Let’s try that again,” Balfour said. “Who are you?”

“My name is Kyohei Tachibana. I’m a chef. You have a computer on you? Do a search for me on ‘France’s Rising Cooking Stars.’ They should have a video clip.”

Balfour removed a smartphone from his pocket and tabbed it. Then Kyo heard the sounds from the TV show he’d been on.

Balfour turned the screen towards Kyo. “That’s you?”

“That’s me.”

Balfour nodded to Meg. “How did you get mixed up with the likes of her?”

“Her boss hired me to cook for the girls, and I used the money I made to pay the taxes on studying abroad, so I could go to France and study to be a patissier.”

“Huh. Interesting.” Balfour pocketed his phone. “All right, Kyohei, let me tell you what is going to happen: You are going to tell me everything you know about Meg’s employer and who her employer is working with, and Meg is going to die. That is not in doubt. The question is whether you answer my questions voluntarily and Meg dies quickly, at which time you enter my employ as a personal chef for which I will pay you handsomely; or do you watch her die slowly and painfully before we beat the answers out of you, after which you die slowly and painfully. The choice is yours.”

“No,” Kyohei said. “The choice is whether Meg and I are untied by the time Jo gets here, or whether you are still threatening us when Jo gets here. That’ll determine how many dead bodies end up on the floor, and whether you are one of them.”

“Nice try, son, but my men took care of Jo.”

“Oh? Did they bring you the body? Did you personally chop it into bits, toss the pieces into an incinerator, and drop a nuke on it?”

“You should stick to cooking, Kyohei. You’re not good at intimidation.”

“I’ll take that as a ‘no,’ Mr. Balfour, in which case, you are in a world of hurt. Jo is, for lack of a better term, unreasonable if Meg is just threatened. You hurt her or kill her, you’ll have 60 kilos of berserker rage hounding you for the rest of your life. And by ‘rest of your life,’ I mean, ‘until Jo catches you.’”

“I tried to be nice, but I’m losing patience. Last chance, Kyohei.”

Kyo’s eyes met Meg’s. Meg shook her head.

“No,” Kyo said. “I won’t betray my friends.”

“Very well. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry it had to come to this. Don’t say I didn’t give you a chance.”

A goon drew a knife and advanced on Meg, and Kyo’s heart leapt into his throat: Had his faith in Jo been misplaced? But then he heard a door crash open and several gunshots. Balfour’s goons fell dead.

Jo advanced on Balfour, her tattoo blazing, her bone blades twitching at full extension. “Try something, fatso! Give me a--”

“Jo,” Sei said as she entered with Batou and a squad of her men, “remember, we want him alive.”

Jo holstered her Desert Eagle. “Yeah, yeah.”

Batou untied Kyo and Meg as Sei confronted Balfour.

“You’re going to prison, Mr. Balfour,” she said. “For how long and in what country depends on how well you cooperate.”

“I’m sure we can reach an accommodation.”

“I’m sure we can. But first things first…” Sei’s fist slammed into Balfour’s stomach. The fat man doubled over. “That was for threatening my chef,” Sei said.

8

8

Sei found Kyo in the sub’s kitchen, working at the stove, while Akiko and Mikiko watched.

Sei smiled. “Old habits?”

“Working off nervous energy,” Kyo said. “I think I’m still on a rush from the rescue. I don’t know how Jo ever calms down.” He turned and handed plates to the waiting 8-year olds. “Here. Careful – it’s hot.”

The girls left the kitchen.

Sei smiled. “I think you have two new converts, Kyo.”

“Yeah, Sei,” he said with a smile, “so it’s got me wondering what the next step of your plan is?”

“My plan?” she said playfully.

“Yeah,” Kyo teased, shuffling a little closer to her. “Let’s see…as far as anyone knows, the cops grabbed me for questioning. So maybe you send word I’m being sent back to Japan for more interrogation.”

“The *Elizabeth* has a spare bunk, so you could go back with us.”

“Then maybe Japan wants me extradited.”

“That would take time to sort out.”

“And all the while you would have me cooking in the trailer.”

“We can’t let your skills go to waste. And Leo upgraded the trailer’s kitchen when he rebuilt it and Django. Top of the line stuff, I’m told.”

“Yeah? I may want to have a look at that.”

“I wouldn’t mind showing you aroun--”

Stereo sighs sounded from the door. Sei and Kyo turned to see Akiko and Mikiko standing there with clean plates and dreamy looks on their faces.

Sei scowled at them. “Don’t you two have get the sub ready for return home?”

“Come, Mikiko,” Akiko said, “let’s leave them alone.”

The girls marched away.

Kyo said, “Leaving so soon?”

“Duty calls,” Sei said.

“Yeah. And we’ve got what, two hours to get me back to France?”

“Something like that.”

“Yeah.”

Sei shifted a little nervously. “You know, Kyo…I’m pleased you’re doing so well…but…if you ever got tired of France or…if things didn’t work out…there’s a place for you…with us…if you want it.”

“Sei…what are you trying to say?”

“Kyo…I…um….”

“RED ALERT!” Amy’s voice sounded from the passage. “SEI! Anyone seen Sei? And where’s Kyo?” She ran past the door in a panic.

“We’re in here, Amy!” Sei called. 

Amy stuck her head in the door. “There you are. And you’re with Kyo. Good. We are in it deep. The balloon has gone up. Defcon one! Ok, it’s not my fault—I don’t know how it happened--”

“Amy,” Sei soothed, “calm down. Take a deep breath and tell me what happened.”

“Kyo’s girlfriend. She knows everything.” Amy turned to Kyo. “I don’t know how she found out, but Elise knows you’re here.”

8

8

Kyo, the girls, and Batou gathered in the control room as Motoko Kusanagi’s image filled the main screen and she explained the situation.

“Apparently, one of Jean-Pierre’s regular customers is with the French ministry of Defense,” Kusanagi explained. “This customer called in some favors and found out Sei is involved. At which point, by all accounts, Elise Navarre hit the roof. And I’ve been told she has an impressive command of French profanity.”

Sei said, “Has our operation been compromised, Motoko?”

“No, Sei; it’s still classified. Thanks God for small miracles. File that with that I’m still able to sit down after I had my ass chewed out over this. Luckily, we all still have jobs. Because we caught Balfour, I was able to get a couple of minor concessions. You’ve got a couple of hours to get some rest. But at first light, you are to set sail for LeHavre where Elise will meet the *Elizabeth* and Kyo will get off. And after that…that’s it.”

Meg frowned. “What’s it?”

“I mean that’s it for Kyohei,” Kusangai said. “Sei, after Kyo disembarks, neither you nor any person or entity currently or formerly associated with you can have any contact with him ever again. Orders from on high. Count yourselves lucky you’re not facing jail time for this stunt. Endangering a civilian is pretty serious business.”

“I don’t believe this!” Meg said. “After all we’ve been through, we finally have the whole team back together, and this little French bitch is going to smash it forever?”

“Meg!” Sei snapped. “What’s done is done.”

“Are you serious!?” Meg turned to Kyo. “What about you, Kyo? Don’t you have a say in this? What do you want?”

Kusanagi said, “Meg, I didn’t say it was fair. I didn’t say I agreed with it. But this is the hand we’ve been dealt. And since working for me is the only thing keeping you out of prison, I suggest you swallow your pride and deal with it. Kusanagi out.” She left the screen.

“Well, then,” Sei said. “Amy, find Kyo a bunk. Then you and the twins start preparing the ship to leave in the morning.”

8

8

The bunk was in a small cramped space, but Kyo didn’t find it claustrophobic. But he only dozed occasionally; for the most part, his mind was racing. Meg’s words kept ringing through his mind:

‘After all we’ve been through, we finally have the whole team back together, and this little French bitch is going to smash it forever?...What about you, Kyo? Don’t you have a say in this? What do you want?’

‘Yeah, what do I want?’ Kyo asked himself more than once. And he was finding it harder to come up with answer.

He woke to someone kicking the bunk. Meg was standing over him. “Breakfast in the wardroom. The hotel sent one of their chefs over. I guess they wanted to be in your good graces. Connections help.”

Kyo didn’t say anything as he got up and got dressed.

The rest of the team had eaten so he found a small table and ate alone. But midway through his meal, Meg bounced over with a small tray. “Caught the guy just as he was leaving,” she said. “Couldn’t let this food go to waste.” She dug in.

“I thought you had breakfast,” Kyo said.

“I did,” Meg said between mouthfuls. “This is my early midmorning snack. I have one every time I cross the English Channel.”

“This is the only time you may ever cross the English Channel.”

“So it’s a special occasion.”

“Y’know, you’re going to blow up like a balloon someday.”

“Nag, nag, nag.”

The deck rumbled under them.

“Feels like we’re getting under way,” Meg said. “Should only be a couple of hours before we have you back in France. *Lizzie* can really fly. Amy said Elise and her dad are taking the new MagLev from Paris to LeHavre. They should be waiting for us when we get there.”

“Yeah.”

“Contain your excitement.”

Kyo smiled slightly. They ate in silence for a moment. Then Kyo said, “Meg, can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“What do you do when you have everything you think you want, and it doesn’t feel right?”

“I wouldn’t know. I’m not in that situation. Things not right with Elise?”

“Not what I expected.”

“Never is, and that can be a good thing. I mean, if you’d come to me three years ago and told me today I would be on a sub run by a Chinese mob princess and that my girlfriend – yes, GIRLFRIEND—was a Neetsee-whatsis--”

“Nietzschean.”

“—yeah, that--and that her genetic momma was a space pirate from another universe, I would have asked you how long you’d been off your meds. Yet here I am. I’m sometimes amazed by the things I’ve done and seen. I never dreamed this would happen. And I wouldn’t change it for anything.”

“And I have my dream but it’s not turned out the way I expected.”

“Well…Kyo, I can’t tell you what to do with your life. I’m the last person to do that. But you know what your choices are, and you know better than anybody what to expect. So the question is, what do you want and what are you going to do about it?”

“You’re right.” Kyo sipped the last of his coffee; his plate was clean. “I’ve been letting people make the choices for me. It’s time I stood up for myself.”

He went forward to the control room. He found Sei, Amy, and the twins at their stations, Batou and Jo watching from one side.

Sei smiled as he entered. “Ah, Kyo. We’re under way. We should have you in France in a couple of hours.” Then she read the look on his face. “What’s wrong?”

“Sei…we have to talk.”

Batou winced. “And that, children, is the sound of my pension as it dies screaming.”

8

8

Elise didn’t try to hide her impatience as the *Elizabeth* pulled into dock and crew members tied its ropes to the dock. As she got to the bottom of the gangplank, a hatch opened and Kyohei came onto the deck. As Kyo headed down the ramp, Elise saw Sei and her girls also come onto the deck and wait at the top of the gangplank. She favored them with a dirty look then turned to Kyo as he came down to her.

Elise hugged him and kissed him. “I was so worried about you! Are you all right?”

“Yeah,” Kyo said. “A little sleep deprived and a couple of bumps and bruises, but that’s par for the course--”

“Those sluts! They put you in danger again. Well, this is the last time.” She grabbed his hand. “Let’s go, Kyo. I’ve been assured they will never trouble you again.” She started to drag him away from the sub, towards a cab where her father waited. 

Kyo dug his heels in. “Elise…wait.”

She stopped. “What?”

“Elise…it’s not that I’m not grateful for all you and Jean-Pierre have done, but it hasn’t felt right since before I left Japan.” He nodded his head back towards the girls. “And I feel like I’m needed somewhere else.”

“Kyo…what are you saying?”

“Elise…I’m going back to Japan. I asked Sei if I could have my old job back, and she said yes.”

“What!? Why for god’s sake? Don’t they have chefs in Japan?”

“Maybe it’s not just about the cooking, Elise. Maybe they need a friend, too.”

“And that’s why you’re going to give up everything, Kyo? What about me? What about us?”

“You can come with me.”

“Back to Japan? And cook for…her? Just like that?”

“Just like that. Come on Elise. Look beneath the surface. Take a leap of faith.” 

Elise shuffled, angry and agitated. “You…you…” She calmed herself with a visible effort. “I will give you one more chance to change your mind, Kyo – one last chance to come back with me. But I have run out of patience; I’m tired of waiting for you to put them behind you. This really is your last chance; you have to decide once and for all. But I can promise you this: If you do not get in that cab with me, you are finished as a patissier! No kitchen will ever take you in, ever again. Think hard before you decide.”

Kyo took a long look into Elise’s eyes. Then he pulled his hand out of hers and took a half step back as Sei and the girls reached the bottom of the gangplank.

“You, you…” Elise slapped Kyo hard. “All right. Go back to Japan. Cook for Sei and her…girls. You had better enjoy it, because you have just burned all your bridges here; there is no future for you in France. And when you die a lonely death in some godforsaken warren, don’t say I didn’t try to save you.”

Jo came to Kyo’s side, faint traces of the tattoo showing under the skin on her left arm. “The man already told you he’s staying,” Jo said. “I think it’s time for you to go.”

Elise spat on the ground at Jo’s feet and stormed back to the waiting taxi.

Elise exchanged words with Jean-Pierre. Then Jean-Pierre came over, gave Kyo a hard look, and stuck his hand out.

Kyo reached into his pocket, fished out a key chain, detached the keys to the restaurant, and put them in Jean-Pierre’s hand.

Jean-Pierre closed his hand. “You’ve earned the right to make your own choices, but that means you have to live with the consequences. Be happy in the life you have chosen.” Then he turned and went back to the taxi and got in. Sei, Meg, and Amy clustered around Jo and Kyo as the cab drove away.

8

8

Kyo stood on the bridge in the *Elizabeth’s* conning tower with his phone to his ear and watched as the last green traces of France – and with it, the last vestiges of the life and career he had given up – disappeared over the horizon behind the sub.

Jo came through the hatch just as Kyo closed his phone. She went to stand beside him and asked, “Anyone I know?”

“Henri Cousteau is blocking my calls,” Kyo said. “I can’t even get voice mail. Elise worked fast.” He pocketed the phone. 

“How you holding up?”

“Ok, I guess.”

“Second thoughts?”

“No, I meant it when I told her things hadn’t felt right. But I guess I’m going to wonder about the road not taken.”

“If she was that petty, Kyo, she’s not worth your time.”

He chuckled. “Like I matter.”

“You matter,” Jo said. “If you have talents, skills that set you apart from others, it doesn’t matter what they are, whether it’s killing people or cooking. What matters is how you use them. As long as you do what you think is right, it matters. And as long as you do that, I will be proud to call you my friend.”

“Thanks, Jo. That means a lot coming from you.”

They turned from the view of the retreating coastline and faced the direction the sub was going. Towards home. And the future.

8

8

Meg crept up onto the roof of the trailer. It was a clear night, and Kyo, a chef’s apron over his black shirt and green pants, was leaning on the railing, looking at the lights of the city. It was his first night back cooking for the girls, and once he’d got everything started, he’d gone up onto the roof.

He looked over his shoulder. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Meg said as she came to stand beside him. “Been one wild ride, hasn’t it?”

“You’re telling me…although I think you had the more interesting part.” He nodded at the skyline. “Y’know, I never knew the city was that pretty.”

“Jo said the same thing out first night back.” She paused. “Still thinking about Elise?”

“I miss her and I wonder…but you said it yourself—feels like a million years ago—you told me I would go when I was ready. I’m not sure I was. And I’m not sure how I would have chosen if all hell hadn’t broken loose. But I feel I made the right decision; I’m good. What about you, Meg? You having second thoughts?”

“Why would I have second thoughts, Kyo?”

“Sei told me you were something of a pain in the neck about getting me back. You miss my cooking that much?”

Meg snapped her fingers. “You got me! But seriously, Kyo, I couldn’t stand by and watch two people I care about—and yes, I do care about you—just let themselves be torn away from each other. I know, I know, there’s nothing there, but you and Sei…have a bond. You shouldn’t have had that ripped apart through no fault of your own. At the very least, you had the right to make the choice.”

“Thanks, Meg.”

“For what it’s worth, Kyo, I wish you hadn’t had to give up your chance to become a patissier.”

“French pastries aren’t hard to make, and I can make them anywhere. I’m thinking of making the ones I learned from Elise and Jean-Pierre for you guys tomorrow night.”

“Looking forward to them already. And don’t let them get you down. Who cares what Elise says? For all you know, someday--” Meg broke off and turned at the sound of her own voice. Amy was standing in the hatch with Meg’s cell phone, a video playing on its holoscreen.

“Why you--!” Meg charged after Amy, who disappeared into the hatch. 

Kyo turned back to the city. “I must be out of my mind.” He chuckled. “But at least I’ll fit in around here.”

Sei came up onto the roof. “Kyohei, I think dinner is ready--”

A crash and some shouts sounded from inside the trailer.

Sei finished: “…and I think we have to reign in the beasts.”

“Feeding time at the zoo. Always fun. After you, Mademoiselle Sei.”

“Ooh! Why Kyohei, you still have a bit of a French accent. I think that’s sexy.” She smiled as she headed down into the trailer.

“Out of my mind,” Kyo chuckled as he followed her. 

He hadn’t notice that he’d been watched the whole time. Batou and Kusanagi sat in a car across the tarmac from the trailer.

Batou mused, “Damndest thing.”

“What?” Kusanagi asked.

“Oh, just a rumor I heard. Story goes that about a month ago, someone at Section 9 started calling the other sections on the QT, asking if they wanted Section 9 to do the leg work on any…difficult cases in Europe, particularly involving a target where the in might be some kind of dietary requirement the target had. The other section could keep all the credit and Section 9 would do the work. Well, Section 6 and the Brits had been getting nowhere with Balfour because the guy was so freakin’ paranoid, so Section 6 said, ‘You want it? You’ve got it.’ And that’s how we got the case. What do you think of that, Colonel?”

“I think you shouldn’t put too much stock in rumors, Batou. And since you owe me a late supper, I think you should stop worrying about that and focus on getting us to a restaurant. Clear?”

Batou started the car. “Yes, Colonel.”

8

8

The woman in a gold shirt, purple jacket and purple skirt watched from the other side of the fence as Batou and Kusanagi’s car pulled away and kept her attention on the trailer. No one had noticed her, but that was the way T. G. wanted it. 

The light from the sun in another galaxy flashed in her eyes for a moment. Then she smiled.

**_And the adventure continues…_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Original note for Fan Fiction dot net readers: And that’s a wrap! It took me a long time to get around to it, but “Angels Ascendant” is finally completed. If you’ve been here from the beginning, I hope it was worth the wait. And if you’re a new reader, I hope you’ve enjoyed the ride.
> 
> ~“MikeJaffa” October 24, 2020
> 
> Note for AO3 Readers: If this is your first reading, yes, it took me a long time, but this is the story I mapped out in 2013. It just took me a while to finish posting it. Hope you liked it! 
> 
> November 26, 2020


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